Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what was the cost of the free school meal vouchers issued over the summer holiday; and what was the value of those vouchers not redeemed.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Our national voucher scheme launched on 31 March. Edenred, the supplier, has reported that over £380 million worth of voucher codes had been redeemed into supermarket eGift cards by families, as of 19 August, and over 20,350 schools had placed orders for the scheme as of 28 July. This covers both term time and holiday provision. Schools also had the option to order via local voucher schemes and claim costs back through the exceptional costs fund. The free school meal (FSM) voucher scheme has now closed. Schools and their kitchens are open, so normal FSM provision has resumed, enabling children to have a nutritious healthy meal at school. We do not hold data relating to the value of vouchers that have not been redeemed and such a figure would still be subject to change. The expiry date on an eGift card varies depending on the retailer (the shortest term being 12 months).
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which (a) schools and (b) higher education establishments (i) host a Confucius Institute and (ii) are in receipt of funds from the Chinese Government.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
Higher education establishments are independent, autonomous organisations and the government does not collect data of this sort. A number of UK higher education providers host and publicise their Confucius Institutes and are responsible for ensuring their partnerships are managed appropriately with the right due diligence in place.
The government does not collect data on which education establishments host a Confucius institute.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reasons the results of Reception Baseline Assessments will not be shared with the school attended by the pupil until that child is about to leave primary school.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department has always been clear that the reception baseline assessment (RBA) is not a diagnostic assessment and should not be used to track or group individual children or hold early years settings to account. Data gathered from the assessment will only be used to create a baseline for school-level progress measures and will not be shared with schools, teachers, or parents. However, teachers will receive a series of short, narrative statements on how each child did at that time, which can be used to inform teaching.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of children with Education Health Care Plans (a) were attending primary school in the latest period for which data is available before reception, Year 1 and Year 6 classes were reopened and (b) are attending primary school presently.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The latest data on the attendance of children with an education, health and care (EHC) plan in educational establishments since 23 March was published on Tuesday 9 June and covers data up to Thursday 4 June. The data is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-attendance-in-education-and-early-years-settings.
The data is collected from individual education establishments and the published figures include estimates for non-response.
An estimate of the number of children with EHC plans who have a parent designated as a critical worker has not been made.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of children with Education, Health and Care plans who have a parent designated as a key worker.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The latest data on the attendance of children with an education, health and care (EHC) plan in educational establishments since 23 March was published on Tuesday 9 June and covers data up to Thursday 4 June. The data is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-attendance-in-education-and-early-years-settings.
The data is collected from individual education establishments and the published figures include estimates for non-response.
An estimate of the number of children with EHC plans who have a parent designated as a critical worker has not been made.