Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of adding financial education to the primary school national curriculum; what assessment she has made of the potential merits of Talk Money Week for encouraging financial literacy among young people; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Education on financial matters helps to ensure that young people are prepared to manage their money well, make sound financial decisions, and know where to seek further information when needed.
The current mathematics curriculum at primary level includes financial education, including calculations with money and using percentages, which provides young people with the knowledge to make important financial decisions.
Primary schools can also teach financial education through citizenship. This is not part of the National Curriculum until Key Stage 3, but the Department has published a non-statutory citizenship curriculum for Key Stages 1 and 2, to support schools to inform pupils of the benefits of saving.
There are resources available for schools, including the Money and Pension Service’s (MaPS) financial education guidance for primary and secondary schools in England. The guidance is available at: https://maps.org.uk/2021/11/11/financial-education-guidance-for-primary-and-secondary-schools-in-england/. The Department is working with MaPS on a series of joint financial education webinars during the 2022/23 academic year, to help both primary and secondary schools, to improve pupils’ skills and knowledge and build teachers’ confidence in this area.
The Department supports wider initiatives that aim to improve financial confidence and resilience, including Talk Money Week, which is led by MaPS. Talk Money Week is useful for encouraging all UK citizens, including at home, within families and at school, to talk openly about managing money. Departmental officials will continue to work closely with MaPS and other stakeholders such as HM Treasury, to consider what can be learned from such initiatives and how to provide further support for the teaching of financial education in schools.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when his Department expects to publish the results of the SEND Green Paper consultation.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The department will publish a national Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) improvement plan later this year, setting out our next steps for implementation and response to the consultation.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what his Department's timescale is for publishing the results of the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) green paper consultation.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The department will publish a national Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) improvement plan later this year, setting out our next steps for implementation and response to the consultation.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of children subject to a deprivation of Liberty Order are of (a) black African and (b) Caribbean heritage broken down by gender.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The department does not collect information on the number or characteristics of children subject to a Deprivation of Liberty Order.
However, the President of the Family Division has established a national Deprivation of Liberty Court, which is to be supported by the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory. This aims to improve our understanding of the cases that are being heard by the Court, and to understand more about what can be done to better meet the needs of the children involved. More information is available at: https://www.nuffieldfjo.org.uk/news/nuffield-family-justice-observatory-to-monitor-data-from-new-national-dols-deprivation-of-liberty-court.
The latest information on the number of children looked after is available in the statistical release ‘Children looked after in England’ available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoptions.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children are (a) in care and (b) subject to a deprivation of liberty Order as of 6 September 2022.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The department does not collect information on the number or characteristics of children subject to a Deprivation of Liberty Order.
However, the President of the Family Division has established a national Deprivation of Liberty Court, which is to be supported by the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory. This aims to improve our understanding of the cases that are being heard by the Court, and to understand more about what can be done to better meet the needs of the children involved. More information is available at: https://www.nuffieldfjo.org.uk/news/nuffield-family-justice-observatory-to-monitor-data-from-new-national-dols-deprivation-of-liberty-court.
The latest information on the number of children looked after is available in the statistical release ‘Children looked after in England’ available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoptions.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to support adoptive parents with the educational needs of their child.
Answered by Will Quince
Local authorities have a statutory duty to promote the achievement of previously looked-after children, including those who have left care through adoption. They must appoint an officer, the Virtual School Head, who discharges this duty through the provision of expert advice and information to those with parental responsibility, designated teachers and educators.
Previously looked-after children have priority access in school admissions, alongside looked-after children, and schools are required to appoint a designated teacher to promote their achievement. These pupils attract pupil premium plus funding of £2,410 per annum, which is managed by the school. Statutory guidance on the role of the designated teacher sets a clear expectation for schools to involve parents and guardians in deciding how best the funding is used to support their child.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent progress his Department has made on bringing forward legislative proposals to introduce a compulsory register of home education children.
Answered by Robin Walker
As outlined in the children not in school consultation response, which was published on 3 February 2022, the government is committed to a form of local authority register for children not in school. We continue to engage with stakeholders on these proposals and we hope to legislate on this measure at the earliest suitable opportunity. The consultation response is available to view here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/children-not-in-school.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate his Department has made of the number of children's centres that closed in each of the last 12 years; and what steps his Department is taking to help ensure there is adequate capacity in children's centres.
Answered by Will Quince
Based on the information supplied by local authorities, as of 18 March 2022[1], there were 2,966 children’s centre sites open to families and children, providing children's centre services as part of a network.
The attached table shows the number of children’s centres sites that have closed in each year since 2011[2].
The government is committed to championing the family hub model. Between 2019 and 2021, it announced £39.5 million in support of this commitment, including:
As part of the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021, the government announced a further £82 million to create a network of family hubs. This is part of a wider £300 million package to transform services for parents, carers, babies, and children in half of council areas across England.
Children’s centres can form part of a family hub network. The National Centre for Family Hubs will work to ensure that councils understand how they can best be incorporated where it is appropriate.
[1] Source: This is based on information supplied by local authorities to Get Information about Schools (GIAS) database: https://www.get-information-schools.service.gov.uk and internal management information held by the department on historical children’s centre closure dates as of 18 March 2022. These figures may be different to previous answers, and could change again in future, since local authorities may update their data at any time. The GIAS collects data on children’s centres that local authorities have closed on a permanent basis. It does not collect data on children’s centres that local authorities may have closed temporarily in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
[2] No closures have been reported in 2022.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data his Department collects on the number of businesses offering apprenticeships; and what steps his Department is taking to encourage more businesses to offer apprenticeships.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Apprenticeships provide people with the opportunity to earn and learn the skills needed to start an exciting career or boost their skills in a wide range of industries. The department wants more employers to offer high-quality apprenticeships.
In the 2019/20 academic year, there were 66,900 unique enterprises in England, with at least one matched start for apprenticeships. Of these, small enterprises with 0-49 employees represented 71.2% (47,633), medium enterprises with 50-249 employees represented 15.3% (10,236), and large enterprises with 250+ employees represented 13.5% (9,031). Further data breakdowns for apprenticeship employers' industry characteristics is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships-in-england-by-industry-characteristics/2019-20.
To support employers in all sectors to offer apprenticeships, the department is increasing funding for apprenticeships in England to £2.7 billion by the 2024/25 financial year. We are also encouraging the use of more flexible training models, such as front-loaded and accelerated training and flexi-job apprenticeships to ensure that apprenticeships work for employers in all sectors.
We are also engaging with employers through our Join the Skills Revolution campaign. The campaign aims to increase small and medium-sized enterprises’ awareness and consideration of apprenticeships and other skills programmes, such as traineeships and T Level industry placements, to drive action to increase uptake.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many apprenticeship starts there were in the (a) London Borough of Ealing or (b) lowest level data set available in each of the last four reporting periods; and what the average number of those starts was in (a) London and (b) England.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The number of apprenticeship starts for Ealing, Southall constituency, the London Borough of Ealing, London and England in the previous four academic years are presented in the table below, along with an average of those four years and figures for the first quarter of the current academic year.
| 2017-28 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | Average | Q1 (Aug – Oct) 2021-22 |
Ealing, Southall Constituency | 420 | 480 | 380 | 380 | 410 | 140 |
London Borough of Ealing | 1,360 | 1,500 | 1,190 | 1,230 | 1,320 | 450 |
London | 36,830 | 40,750 | 33,890 | 36,930 | 37,100 | 13,070 |
England | 375,760 | 393,380 | 322,530 | 321,440 | 353,280 | 130,240 |
Please note:
Further information on apprenticeship starts can be found in the Apprenticeships and traineeships statistics publication:https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships-and-traineeships.