Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of fully funding apprenticeships for under-22s in SMEs on apprenticeship starts to date.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Since April 2024, the government pays 100% of apprentice training costs, up to the funding band maximum, for non-levy paying employers when they take on apprentices aged 16 to 21, and apprentices aged 22 to 24 who have an education, health and care plan or have been in local authority care.
Apprenticeship statistics, including starts by young people, can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of removing one-word Ofsted judgements on parental (a) engagement and (b) understanding.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
These are matters for His Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Sir Martyn Oliver. I have asked him to write to the hon. Member for Aldridge-Brownhills directly and a copy of his reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many new Full-Time Equivalent jobs in Ofsted are being created to support the transition to School Report Cards.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
These are matters for His Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Sir Martyn Oliver. I have asked him to write to the hon. Member for Aldridge-Brownhills directly and a copy of his reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help support state schools with trends in the level of demand for state school places following the application of VAT to private school fees.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
As set out in HM Treasury’s tax information and impact note published on GOV.UK, the introduction of VAT is anticipated to have a very limited impact on the number of pupils in state and private schools. The department has not seen any evidence that contradicts the expectations set out in the government’s impact assessment.
Ending tax breaks on private schools will help raise around £1.8 billion per year by the 2029/30 financial year for investment in public services, including state-funded education which serves 94% of children. This will help break down barriers to opportunity, ensuring every child has access to high-quality education.
Local authorities are responsible for securing school places for children in their area. Pupil numbers in schools fluctuate for a number of reasons, and the school funding system is already set up to manage that. The department provides capital funding through the basic need grant to support the provision of mainstream school places, based on local authorities’ own pupil forecasts and school capacity data.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the application of VAT on private school fees on the (a) accessibility and (b) quality of state education.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
As set out in HM Treasury’s tax information and impact note published on GOV.UK, the introduction of VAT is anticipated to have a very limited impact on the number of pupils in state and private schools. The department has not seen any evidence that contradicts the expectations set out in the government’s impact assessment.
Ending tax breaks on private schools will help raise around £1.8 billion per year by the 2029/30 financial year for investment in public services, including state-funded education which serves 94% of children. This will help break down barriers to opportunity, ensuring every child has access to high-quality education.
Local authorities are responsible for securing school places for children in their area. Pupil numbers in schools fluctuate for a number of reasons, and the school funding system is already set up to manage that. The department provides capital funding through the basic need grant to support the provision of mainstream school places, based on local authorities’ own pupil forecasts and school capacity data.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the number of children who transferred from private to state schools in the first three months of (a) 2024 and (b) 2025.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Data on pupil numbers in the state-funded and private school sectors is collected in January and published in June each year. This shows how pupil numbers at different types of school have changed over time.
In January 2023 there were 591,954 pupils in independent schools. In January 2024, this number had increased by 1,532 to 593,486.
This data is published at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/f3ef2b69-9a02-4040-1972-08dd660c60ce. Pupil numbers for January 2025 will be published in June 2025.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to encourage small and medium-sized enterprises to offer apprenticeships.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Apprenticeships can support small and medium sized employers (SMEs) to improve their skills base, boost productivity and develop a pipeline of future talent.
To support non-levy paying employers, usually SMEs, to offer apprenticeships, the government pays the full training costs for young apprentices aged 16 to 21 years-old, and for apprentices aged 22 to 24 years-old who have an education, health and care (EHC) plan or have been in local authority care. For all other apprentices, employers who do not pay the levy are required to co-invest 5% towards apprentice training costs.
Employers of all sizes can also benefit from £1,000 payments when they take on apprentices aged 16 to 18 years-old, or apprentices aged 19 to 24 years-old who have an EHC plan or have been in local authority care. This is in recognition of the additional support that younger apprentices may require when entering employment. Employers can choose how they spend these payments.
Employers also benefit from not being required to pay anything towards employees’ National Insurance for all apprentices aged up to age 25 where they earn less than £967 a week (£50,270 a year).
Employers that need help with employing an apprentice, including accessing funding, can access the employer support GOV.UK page, which is available here: https://help.employersupport.apprenticeships.gov.uk/hc/en-gb.
The apprenticeship ambassador network is a group of employers and former and current apprentices. Around 35%of the employers are SMEs. Their remit is to inspire greater numbers of employers and individuals to connect with apprenticeships.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to launch a consultation on statutory guidance, external speakers and resources in relationships, health and sex education classes.
Answered by Nick Gibb
On 8 March, my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister announced that the Department had brought forward the review of the relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) statutory guidance. The review will cover the full scope of the statutory guidance, including the use of external speakers and resources, and will involve working closely with stakeholders and experts to draw on the best available evidence.
On 31 March, the Department announced further details of the review, including the plan to set up an independent panel of experts to advise on what can be done to ensure that what is taught is appropriate by, for example, introducing age restrictions. Further details can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/review-of-relationships-sex-and-health-education-to-protect-children-to-conclude-by-end-of-year.
The Department will undertake a public consultation on the amended guidance in the autumn.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of including knife crime awareness in the relationships, health and sex education curriculum.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The subjects of relationships education for primary school pupils, relationships and sex education for secondary school pupils, and health education for all pupils in state-funded schools became compulsory in state funded schools in September 2020 and can help address the underlying causes of knife and gun crime.
Whilst the relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) statutory guidance does not mention knife crime explicitly, it does reference situations that often lead young people to carry weapons. These include criminal exploitation though involvement in gangs and county lines drugs operations, and the grooming relationships that often accompany this.
As with other aspects of the curriculum, schools will have flexibility over how they deliver these subjects, so they can develop an integrated approach that is sensitive to the needs and backgrounds of their pupils.
Issues around knife crime can also be taught as part of a school’s wider curriculum. For example, schools can choose to include lessons on weapons awareness and gangs as part of their personal, social, health and economic education or citizenship curriculum.
The Department has recently brought forward the review of the RSHE statutory guidance. As part of this, the Department will explore whether any more content is required. The Department expects to consult on guidance in the autumn and publish revised guidance in early 2024.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support recruitment and retention of high quality teachers.
Answered by Nick Gibb
We have increased scholarships and bursaries to attract top graduates in priority subjects; supported the growth of Teach First and enabled schools to reward their best teachers in line with their performance. We announced a £67m package to recruit an additional 2,500 mathematics and physics teachers and improve the knowledge and skills of 15,000 existing teachers. For 2016/17, we have given greater freedom to initial teacher training providers to recruit the trainees they need within recruitment controls set by the National College of Teaching and Leadership.