Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will issue guidance to local councils on maintaining the appropriate bandings for children with Education Health and Care Plans, consistent with each child's level of need.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Local authorities are statutorily responsible for securing the special educational provision specified in a child or young person’s education, health and care (EHC) plan.
The department’s published high needs operational guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/high-needs-funding-arrangements-2021-to-2022.
It states that: “While we expect commissioning local authorities to work constructively with institutions to agree the levels of top-up funding required, local authorities where the student is ordinarily resident bear the ultimate responsibility for decisions on top-up funding, as they are accountable for spending from their high needs budgets… Where a local authority makes a large number of placements at an institution or range of institutions, a system for the local authority and institutions to agree levels of top-up funding in advance can be a very efficient way of allocating this funding. However, the final allocation of funding must be sufficient to secure the agreed provision specified in any EHC plan.”
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what specific support the Government is providing to independent training providers for regular covid-19 testing of (a) staff and (b) students.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
Since January, we have been delivering the same programme of rapid asymptomatic testing for the primary school, secondary school and further education college workforce and for children, young people and students in year 7 and above in all schools, including secondary schools, special schools, alternative provision, and colleges.
Testing is voluntary but staff, pupils and students are strongly encouraged to participate as testing regularly helps to reduce the spread in school and college settings through asymptomatic transmission.
It is important to continue to test pupils and staff to manage the spread of COVID-19 and encourage staff, pupil and students to get into a regular habit of testing themselves twice every week and 3 to 4 days apart. NHS Test and Trace will be supplying sufficient test kits to schools and colleges to enable this to happen.
From 25 March 2021, independent training providers and adult community learning providers have been able to order home test kits for their students and staff. Staff and students attending these providers should conduct testing at home, twice every week and 3 to 4 days apart.
Staff and students are strongly encouraged to participate in twice weekly testing, helping to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in education settings by identifying those that may be carrying the virus unknowingly. However, testing is voluntary and individuals should be allowed to attend school, college or work even if they decide not to take part in testing.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department will provide to same support to Further Education Colleges on covid-19 testing as is currently provided to secondary schools.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
Since January, we have been delivering the same programme of rapid asymptomatic testing for the primary school, secondary school and further education college workforce and for children, young people and students in year 7 and above in all schools, including secondary schools, special schools, alternative provision, and colleges.
Testing is voluntary but staff, pupils and students are strongly encouraged to participate as testing regularly helps to reduce the spread in school and college settings through asymptomatic transmission.
It is important to continue to test pupils and staff to manage the spread of COVID-19 and encourage staff, pupil and students to get into a regular habit of testing themselves twice every week and 3 to 4 days apart. NHS Test and Trace will be supplying sufficient test kits to schools and colleges to enable this to happen.
From 25 March 2021, independent training providers and adult community learning providers have been able to order home test kits for their students and staff. Staff and students attending these providers should conduct testing at home, twice every week and 3 to 4 days apart.
Staff and students are strongly encouraged to participate in twice weekly testing, helping to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in education settings by identifying those that may be carrying the virus unknowingly. However, testing is voluntary and individuals should be allowed to attend school, college or work even if they decide not to take part in testing.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will provide covid-19 tests for staff and students at Bodens Performing Arts School in Barnet.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Dance and drama schools are considered Independent Training Providers (ITPs). As part of this, from 25 March home test kits for students and staff can be ordered from here: https://request-testing.test-for-coronavirus.service.gov.uk/.
Tests will be delivered based on student and staff numbers and will provide three and a half weeks’ worth of testing. Once test kits have arrived on site and a collection point has been set up, students and staff can be offered home test kits for regular twice weekly testing. Testing remains voluntary but strongly encouraged.
Test kits can be reordered every 10 working days.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what adaptations he plans to make to the Ofsted inspections and standards regime in response to the exceptional circumstances prevailing in schools in England as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nick Gibb
It is intended that Ofsted will step up its inspections over the summer term, with a view to returning to its full programme from September 2021. Inspections will resume in the summer term in a way that is fair and proportionate. Ofsted has published details of its summer inspection programme for schools, which can be accessed at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/ofsted-coronavirus-covid-19-rolling-update, and is piloting some changes to its inspection guidance to take account of the challenges raised by COVID-19. It will publish updated inspection handbooks with full details of these changes later this month.
The Government will not publish any school or college level educational performance data based on tests, assessments or exams results for 2020 or 2021 in performance tables. Further information on the current accountability arrangements can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-school-and-college-performance-measures/coronavirus-covid-19-school-and-college-accountability-2020-to-2021. Announcements on performance data arrangements for future years will be made in due course.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to enable retired teachers to take part in volunteer programmes to assist children and young people with catch-up learning.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Former teachers returning to the classroom are an important component of the Department’s recruitment strategy, and we continue to prioritise initiatives that capitalise on any potential increased interest in the profession from former teachers. This includes former teachers who wish to provide support with the recovery phase of the COVID-19 outbreak.
The Department is using a Return to Teaching Adviser Service to support these efforts. This service provides one-to-one support to former teachers interested in returning to teach mathematics, physics and modern foreign languages. Through the Return to Teaching Adviser Service, the Department has also encouraged former teachers to support wider pupil catch up efforts, such as the National Tutoring Programme.
In addition, throughout the recovery phase of the COVID-19 outbreak, volunteers may be used to support the work of the school as would usually be the case, in appropriate roles and subject to proper support, assessment and checks, as set out in the Department’s guidance ‘Keeping children safe in education’, which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-education--2.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what additional funding he plans to make available to support schools as they reopen to students.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Schools have continued to receive their core funding throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, regardless of any periods of reduced attendance, with this year marking the first year of a three-year increase to core funding - the biggest in a decade. This will ensure they can continue to pay their staff and meet other regular financial commitments.
In February 2021, the Department appointed Sir Kevan Collins as Education Recovery Commissioner to advise on the approach to education recovery and the development of a long-term plan to help pupils make up their lost education over the course of this Parliament. As an immediate step, we have made available a further £700 million to support education recovery measures. This builds on the £1 billion from last year and brings the total available to £1.7 billion. Funding will support pupils in nurseries, schools and colleges and provides an additional ‘Recovery Premium’ to schools, expansion of tutoring in schools and colleges, summer schools in 2021 and early language support.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to make additional support available for mental health provision for school pupils in response to anxiety caused by covid-19-related disruption.
Answered by Vicky Ford
I refer my right hon. Friend, the Member for Chipping Barnet, to the answer I gave on 25 February 2021 to Question 156401.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department is taking steps to help schools improve ventilation to reduce the risk of covid-19 transmission.
Answered by Nick Gibb
At each stage of the Department's response to the COVID-19 outbreak, we have listened to the latest medical and scientific advice. The Department has worked closely with other Government departments, including Public Health England (PHE) and the Department of Health and Social Care, as well as stakeholders across the sector, to ensure that our policy is based on the latest scientific and medical advice, and to continue to develop comprehensive guidance based on the PHE-endorsed ‘system of controls’ and to understand the impact and effectiveness of these measures on staff, pupils and parents.
It is important to ensure that schools are well ventilated and that a comfortable teaching environment is maintained.
Current evidence recommends that the way to control COVID-19 is the same, even with the current new variants. The PHE-endorsed ‘system of controls’ which have been in use throughout the COVID-19 outbreak set out in our published guidance, which includes ventilation, continue to be the right measures to take. These measures create an inherently safer environment for children, young people, and staff where the risk of transmission of infection is substantially reduced. PHE keeps all these controls under review, based on the latest evidence. Schools therefore need to continue to implement these controls to the fullest extent. The guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak.
Our guidance signposts to further advice from the Health and Safety Executive on air conditioning and ventilation during the COVID-19 outbreak. The guidance can be found here:
https://www.hse.gov.uk/coronavirus/equipment-and-machinery/air-conditioning-and-ventilation.htm.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when he plans to set out his plans for measures to assess students seeking BTEC qualifications.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
Written exams scheduled in February and March should not go ahead unless they are taken to demonstrate occupational competency. Alternative arrangements will be needed to award qualifications that are taken instead of, or alongside, GCSEs and AS/A levels, including many BTECs used for progression to further or higher education, where the primary method of assessment is written exam(s). Our joint consultation with Ofqual proposed this is also the case for April onwards.
We sought views through the consultation on the detail of these alternative arrangements and the qualifications that should be in scope of this approach. The department’s joint consultation with Ofqual closed on 29 January. The department and Ofqual will work together to publish our decisions by the end of February, once the consultation responses have been analysed. Further information on this is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consultation-on-alternative-arrangements-for-the-award-of-vtqs-and-other-general-qualifications-in-2021.