Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of eligible two year olds received free funded early education in each year between 2019 and 2023.
Answered by David Johnston
Data relating to government-funded early education and childcare is published in the annual ‘Education provision: children under 5 years of age’ statistical release which is available on the GOV.UK website at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-provision-children-under-5.
The figures requested can be found at the following link: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/941bcc65-3f3a-4cc8-9712-08dc1cb7c782.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she will next review the repayment threshold for repayment of (a) student tuition fee loans and (b) student maintenance loans; and if she will carry out a public consultation on this review.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Higher Education policy, including student finance, is devolved and this answer relates to England only.
The student finance and funding system must provide value for money for all of society at a time of rising costs. It is important that a sustainable student finance system is in place that is fair to students and fair to taxpayers. The department has frozen maximum tuition fees for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years. By the 2024/25 academic year, maximum fees will have been frozen for seven successive years.
The mechanism for setting repayment thresholds for student loans is set out and governed by the Education (Student Loans) (Repayment) Regulations 2009 (as amended). This includes provision for annual adjustments, where applicable, which do not require public consultation. The repayment threshold is the same for both tuition fee and maintenance loans.
The department will continue to keep the terms of the student finance system under review to ensure that they keep delivering value for money for both students and taxpayers.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has carried out an equality impact assessment on the uprating of the student maintenance loan.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department publishes an equality impact assessment of changes to student support in England annually on GOV.UK.
For the current 2023/24 academic year, the equality impact assessment can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-education-student-finance-2023-to-2024-equality-analysis.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made a recent assessment of the potential impact of the level of student maintenance loans on the labour market.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department has not made an assessment of the potential impact of the level of student maintenance loans on the labour market.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to (a) monitor and (b) inspect residential care homes in Scotland where (i) referrals are made for children residing in England and (ii) children with primary home addresses in England are staying.
Answered by David Johnston
The department collects and publishes data on the number of children’s residential placements, including children placed in Scotland. The data is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/methodology/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoptions-methodology#content-section-4-content-5.
Local authorities hold the responsibility for monitoring a child in residential care where they have legal responsibility for that child. Each child’s care, including contact and monitoring, is agreed and detailed in their individual care plan. All residential care homes are inspected, and this is the responsibility of the Care Inspectorate in Scotland, and Ofsted in England.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department takes to monitor the number of children with home addresses in England that are placed in residential care in Scotland.
Answered by David Johnston
The department collects and publishes data on the number of children’s residential placements, including children placed in Scotland. The data is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/methodology/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoptions-methodology#content-section-4-content-5.
Local authorities hold the responsibility for monitoring a child in residential care where they have legal responsibility for that child. Each child’s care, including contact and monitoring, is agreed and detailed in their individual care plan. All residential care homes are inspected, and this is the responsibility of the Care Inspectorate in Scotland, and Ofsted in England.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children with primary family addresses in England are in residential care in Scotland as of 13 October 2023.
Answered by David Johnston
The department collects and publishes data on the number of children’s residential placements, including children placed in Scotland. The data is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/methodology/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoptions-methodology#content-section-4-content-5.
Local authorities hold the responsibility for monitoring a child in residential care where they have legal responsibility for that child. Each child’s care, including contact and monitoring, is agreed and detailed in their individual care plan. All residential care homes are inspected, and this is the responsibility of the Care Inspectorate in Scotland, and Ofsted in England.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) has been found within their Department's estate.
Answered by Nick Gibb
For now, the focus is on bringing together the information we hold about the Government estate into one place. This work is being coordinated by the Office for Government Property. Survey work is underway.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, on how many occasions a request for a meeting by an hon. Member was not agreed to by (a) a Minister and (b) their office on behalf of a Minister in the last 12 months.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Engagement with hon. Members is a priority for the Secretary of State and her ministers, and every effort is made to respond to their requests for meetings promptly.
The specific information requested is not centrally collated and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. Ministers at the Department will regularly seek to engage with hon. Members, whilst balancing wider Ministerial and Parliamentary responsibilities.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an equalities impact assessment of (a) the length of placements and (b) the timing of funding payments for the Turing Scheme.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The Secretary of State for Education carried out an Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA) into the Turing Scheme during the design stage of policy development as a way of facilitating and evidencing compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duty contained in Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010. This requires public authorities to have due regard to several equality considerations when exercising their functions.
Under the Turing Scheme, eligible organisations in each education sector have flexibility to design projects in line with their needs and those of their students, including setting the duration of mobilities within a broad window above 4 weeks to 12 months in higher education (HE), 2 weeks to 12 months in further education, and 3 days to 6 months in schools. The department reduced the minimum duration of HE placements to 4 weeks, which is half the shortest duration previously permitted under the Erasmus+ Programme. This is intended to widen access to international opportunities to people from disadvantaged backgrounds for whom the duration of an international placements may represent a potential barrier to participation.
The Turing Scheme is creating more opportunities than ever before for students across the UK who were previously unlikely to take up international exchanges. Of the more than 40,000 pupils, learners and students who will have the opportunity to do study and work placements across the globe this year, nearly two thirds of these opportunities will be for participants from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The Turing Scheme is a demand led, competitive programme with an annual application cycle. Successful applicant institutions are notified of their funding allocation before the start of the academic year and before the funding period for international placements commences. Once the grant agreement is in place, it is the responsibility of grant recipients to make timely requests for payments, so that they can disburse funding to their participants at the point of need.
The department will continue to work closely with the scheme’s delivery partner to collect and act on feedback from participating organisations and sector stakeholders, including on the payment mechanism and timing.