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Written Question
Special Educational Needs: Hearing Impairment
Thursday 5th September 2019

Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of a central bursary fund to train teachers specialising in teaching children with a hearing impairment; and what plans he has to address the shortage of specialised teachers in this area.

Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade

The department received a proposal from the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) for a central bursary scheme to fund trainee teachers of the hearing impaired. After consideration the department found that it did not provide strong enough evidence that a bursary is the solution to the declining numbers of trained teachers of the deaf.

Officials are working with NDCS and other organisations in the sensory impairment sector to identify non-bursary solutions to support teachers wishing to train as teachers of the deaf, or teachers for the sensory impaired more widely.


Written Question
Special Educational Needs: Hearing Impairment
Thursday 5th September 2019

Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of introducing a bursary scheme to support the training of new teachers of the deaf.

Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade

The department received a proposal from the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) for a central bursary scheme to fund trainee teachers of the hearing impaired. After consideration the department found that it did not provide strong enough evidence that a bursary is the solution to the declining numbers of trained teachers of the deaf.

Officials are working with NDCS and other organisations in the sensory impairment sector to identify non-bursary solutions to support teachers wishing to train as teachers of the deaf, or teachers for the sensory impaired more widely.


Written Question
Special Educational Needs: Hearing Impairment
Tuesday 23rd July 2019

Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the number of teachers of the deaf to ensure deaf children are supported in financial year (a) 2019-20, (b) 2020-2021 and (c) 2021-2022.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The information is not held centrally. It is up to local authorities to work with the schools in their area to identify the nature of specialist support services they commission, according to the needs of schools in their area.


Written Question
Special Educational Needs: Hearing Impairment
Monday 22nd July 2019

Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of teachers of the deaf in teaching deaf children.

Answered by Nadhim Zahawi

We do not hold information centrally on effectiveness of teachers of the deaf and the quality of support that they provide to deaf children and their families.

In order to teach a class of pupils with hearing impairment, a teacher must hold a mandatory qualification in addition to qualified teacher status.

Ofsted, through its inspection of individual schools, considers the extent to which the education that they provide meets the needs of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs and disabilities. Inspectors will consider the quality of teaching provided to improve learning for pupils, including those with hearing impairments, which may include support provided by teachers of the deaf.


Written Question
Department for Education: Sick Leave
Tuesday 21st May 2019

Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of officials in his Department took sick leave for reasons relating to stress in the last 12 months; what proportion that leave was of total sick leave taken in his Department; and what the cost was to his Department of officials taking sick leave over that period.

Answered by Anne Milton

The number of employees in the department who were absent for stress-related reasons from 1 May 2018 to 30 April 2019 was 119, which represented 1.84% of the total workforce and 11.26% of the overall sickness absence.

The estimated cost of this sickness absence is £3,456,595 (based on a calculation of total working days lost multiplied by the daily rate of the department’s median salary).

The department is committed to the health and wellbeing of all our employees, including helping them to manage stress in the workplace. There is a range of guidance and services in place to support the department’s employees such as Mental Health First Aiders, Employee Assistance Programmes and Fair Treatment Ambassadors.

Sickness absence data for the Civil Service from 1999 to the first quarter of 2018 is published on GOV.UK and available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-sickness-absence.


Written Question
Department for Education: Brexit
Tuesday 21st May 2019

Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many staff in his Department who were transferred or seconded to work (a) in other departments or (b) on other departmental briefs on preparations for the UK to leave the EU, have since returned to his Department.

Answered by Anne Milton

Following the extension to Article 50, 82 members of staff who had been working on preparations for the UK leaving the European Union at other government departments have now returned to the Department for Education.

The department constantly reviews its capabilities and allocation of resources in order to effectively deliver the government’s agenda. Internal transfers and loans are agreed locally, so the department does not hold this information centrally.

The Civil Service is focused on delivering the government’s most pressing priorities, so it is only sensible that we make use of the resources and expertise that are available. This includes departments sharing staff and working together on joint projects.


Written Question
Department for Education: Brexit
Wednesday 1st May 2019

Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate he has made of the cost to his Department of preparations for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Answered by Anne Milton

HM Treasury has allocated over £4.2 billion of additional funding to departments and the Devolved Administrations for EU Exit preparations so far. This breaks down as:

  • £412 million of additional funding over the spending review period for the Department for Exiting the European Union, Department for International Trade and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office at Autumn Statement 2016.

This funding is to cover all exit scenarios and is in addition to departmental efforts to reprioritise from business as usual toward preparations for the UK’s departure from the EU.

Work on no-deal exit preparations cannot be readily separated from other EU exit work. The department is preparing for all eventualities and the resources available to support preparations are kept under constant review.


Written Question
Languages: GCSE
Tuesday 12th March 2019

Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to reverse the decline in the number of secondary school students taking GCSE language courses.

Answered by Nick Gibb

The Department has a number of initiatives in place to promote the uptake of languages and to improve attainment. The English Baccalaureate (EBacc) performance measure, which includes languages, has seen the proportion of GCSE entries from pupils in state-funded schools in a modern foreign language (MFL) increase from 40% in 2010 to 46% in 2018.

The £4.8 million MFL Pedagogy Pilot commenced in December 2018. It is managed by the newly appointed MFL Centre for Excellence and is run through nine school-led hubs, to improve uptake and attainment in languages at Key Stages 3 and 4. The Department has launched a pilot project in MFL undergraduate mentoring for secondary school pupils to drive up participation in the subject, specifically targeting areas of high disadvantage to extend access to languages for all pupils.

Generous financial incentives are offered for languages teaching, including scholarships in modern foreign languages worth £28,000, and tax-free bursaries, typically worth up to £26,000.

The Department continues to promote the value of language qualifications to students who are choosing their GCSEs and to their parents. A guidance leaflet for parents, which explains why studying a language, as part of the EBacc, broadens opportunities in both education and employment, and is available to view here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/english-baccalaureate-ebacc.

In February, The Department drew attention to the benefits of studying a language among 13-14 year olds through a social media campaign.


Written Question
Department for Education: Migrant Workers
Friday 2nd November 2018

Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many citizens of non-UK EU countries work in (a) his Department, (b) its agencies and (c) its non-departmental public bodies.

Answered by Anne Milton

The department does not hold information about how many people working in it or its agencies are citizens of non-UK EU countries. The department does not hold any information about the employees of its non-departmental public bodies.


Written Question
Department for Education: Contracts
Tuesday 23rd October 2018

Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether gagging clauses have been used in contracts drawn up between his Department and any charities, voluntary sector organisations, social enterprises or companies with the intention of stopping any criticism of Ministers of his Department.

Answered by Anne Milton

The Department’s standard contract terms and conditions do not include so called gagging clauses.

The Department currently operates a devolved contracting model where policy teams are required to involve the central Commercial Directorate in all major procurements. All major projects use the standard terms and conditions.

The Commercial Directorate does not have details of contracts where they have not been involved. However, it is able to confirm that such clauses have not been used in any contract where they have been involved