Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 25 January 2018 to Question 123365 on Office for Students, whether the selection criteria for the Office for Student’s student panel included a specific requirement in to appoint a disabled student.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
Decisions regarding the appointments to the Student Panel are the responsibility of the Office for Students.
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what representation of disabled students there will be on the Office for Students' Student Panel.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The student panel has been appointed by the Office for Students (OfS) and will play an important role in advising the OfS. Membership of the panel includes representatives of students from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences. The announcement of the panel was made on 7 January and can be found at:
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what research his Department has conducted on the effect of the removal of Education Maintenance Allowance on families where a child received that allowance.
Answered by Anne Milton
The Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) was phased out from September 2011 with the final payments being made in August 2012. It was replaced with the 16-19 Bursary Fund which was available from September 2011. Students who began courses in 2010/11 and continued in 2011/12 could receive transitional support. Those from disadvantaged backgrounds who had received a full EMA award of £30 a week continued to receive EMA support at a lower level of £20 a week during 2011/12. Those in higher income brackets who had previously claimed a partial EMA award of £10 or £20 a week no longer received EMA, but all young people could apply for support from the 16 to 19 Bursary Fund.
There was considerable research undertaken following the introduction of the 16 to 19 Bursary Fund to evaluate this new approach. The reports are available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/evaluation-of-the-16-to-19-bursary-fund-year-1-report.
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans his Department has to review funding streams for children who are not of reception age to access additional support services whilst at nursery.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Funding for children’s services is part of the wider local government finance settlement. The Spending Review in 2015 made available more than £200 billion to councils for local services, including children’s services, up to 2019-20.
By 2019-20 we will be spending around £6 billion on childcare support. This includes, for example, the Disability Access Fund.
Budgets after 2019-20 will be set at the next Spending Review.
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children were in good or outstanding schools in each of the last seven years in (a) Kirklees, (b) West Yorkshire, (c) England and (d) UK.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The attached table shows Ofsted inspection data on the number of children in good or outstanding schools in Kirklees, West Yorkshire and England, as at August 31, 2017.
Ofsted are only responsible for inspections in England. The devolved administrations have their own education inspection systems.
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when his Department plans to require academy schools to have a curriculum which includes personal, social and health education.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Academies are currently encouraged to teach personal, social, health and economic Education (PSHE) as part of a broad and balanced curriculum.
The Children and Social Work Act 2017 places a duty on the Secretary of State for Education to make relationships education mandatory in all primary schools and relationships and sex education mandatory in all secondary schools, through regulations. The Act also provides powers to make PSHE, or elements therein, mandatory in all schools (including academies) subject to further consideration.
The Department is conducting thorough and wide-ranging engagement with stakeholders, in order to reach an evidence based decision on PSHE and determine the content of regulations and statutory guidance. The Department is currently seeking views on these subjects from parents, teachers, young people and other interested parties through our call for evidence, which closes on Monday 12 February. This can be found at: https://consult.education.gov.uk/life-skills/pshe-rse-call-for-evidence/.
The Department will consult on draft regulations and guidance. This regulation will then be brought to the House. The Department is working towards schools teaching the new subjects from September 2019.
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans his Department has to ensure that every teacher in all state-funded schools has or is working towards Qualified Teacher Status.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The government has no plans to introduce a requirement that all teachers in state-funded schools have or are working towards Qualified Teacher Status.
Ensuring the highest quality of teaching is paramount to the success of each school. Headteachers have a strong interest in employing the best qualified individual for a particular post, taking into account relevant skills and experience as well as formal training and qualifications.
All schools continue to be held accountable for the quality of teaching through Ofsted inspections and the publication of school performance data.
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what research his Department has conducted on the effect of the removal of Education Maintenance Allowance on families where a child received that allowance.
Answered by Anne Milton
The Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) was phased out from September 2011 with the final payments being made in August 2012. It was replaced with the 16-19 Bursary Fund which was available from September 2011. Students who began courses in 2010/11 and continued in 2011/12 could receive transitional support. Those from disadvantaged backgrounds who had received a full EMA award of £30 a week continued to receive EMA support at a lower level of £20 a week during 2011/12. Those in higher income brackets who had previously claimed a partial EMA award of £10 or £20 a week no longer received EMA, but all young people could apply for support from the 16 to 19 Bursary Fund.
There was considerable research undertaken following the introduction of the 16 to 19 Bursary Fund to evaluate this new approach. The reports are available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/evaluation-of-the-16-to-19-bursary-fund-year-1-report.
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many pupils in the Colne Valley constituency would be entitled to free school meals under the pre-universal free school meals system.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The number of pupils’ eligible for and claiming free school meals under the pre-universal free school meals system is published and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2017.
Data is not summarised by parliamentary constituency, but data for each school is available in the Underlying data: SFR28/2017 of the annual ‘Schools, pupils and their characteristics’ statistical release, contained in file ‘SFR28_2017_Schools_Pupils_UD’. The figures can be filtered by parliamentary constituency.
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of children who were (a) eligible and (b) not eligible for free school meals achieved school readiness standards at the end of the Early Years Foundation Stages in each year since 2010 in Colne Valley constituency.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
Data has been provided for years 2013 to 2017 in the attached table. Data prior to 2013 is not readily available.
Following an independent review of the Early Years Foundation Stage, a revised profile was introduced in September 2012 with the first assessments taking place in summer 2013. The revised profile is very different to the previous profile which has led to a break in the time series as the results are not comparable.