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Written Question
Music: Education
Tuesday 21st November 2023

Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to provide additional funding to music hubs for the increased employer contributions to the teachers’ pension scheme.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

Music Hubs have a vital role in ensuring pupils across the country can access high quality music education. I value the many achievements that the existing Music Hub network has made since 2012. As part of the Music Hubs Investment Programme, including the re-competition of Music Hub Lead Organisations which is currently taking place, Arts Council England informed potential bidders on 15 June 2023 that the Department is providing a core revenue grant totalling around £76 million from September 2024 for academic year 2024/25, alongside a new capital grant totalling £25 million. There are no plans to change the revenue grant to reflect teacher pension scheme costs, and any subsequent changes to the grant from 2025/26 onwards is subject to the next spending review.

The grant funding has consistently provided, on average, around 40% of a hubs total income and music hubs have been using this to leverage other income streams over the lifespan of the programme, this will also be the case for the new programme from September 2024. As set out in the investment programme, organisations applying to become lead organisations will need to evidence how at least 50% of a hub’s total income should come from sources other than the revenue grant provided by the Department by the end of the current funding period.


Written Question
Suicide: Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education
Tuesday 20th June 2023

Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing suicide prevention as a compulsory part of the personal, social, health and economic education curriculum.

Answered by Nick Gibb

Health Education became a statutory part of the National Curriculum in September 2020, for all pupils in state funded schools of compulsory school age.

The aim of teaching pupils about physical health and mental wellbeing is to provide the information they need to make good decisions about their own health and wellbeing, recognise issues in themselves and others and, when issues arise, seek support as early as possible from appropriate sources.

At primary school, pupils will be taught to recognise and talk about their emotions, the benefits of exercise, and simple self care techniques. At secondary school, pupils will be taught common types of mental ill health and how to recognise the early signs of mental wellbeing concerns. Schools can teach older pupils about suicide in an age appropriate and sensitive way.

The Department has brought forward the review of the relationships, sex and health education statutory guidance. The Department will consult on an amended draft of the statutory guidance in the autumn with a view to publishing the final version in early 2024.


Written Question
Programme for International Student Assessment
Thursday 8th June 2023

Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether schools in England will participate in the next PISA creative thinking assessment.

Answered by Nick Gibb

England did not participate in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2022 creative thinking assessment, the results of which will be published in 2024.

The organiser of PISA, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, has not announced whether the creative thinking assessment will be repeated in a future cycle of PISA.


Written Question
Music: Education
Wednesday 7th June 2023

Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when the new geographies for music hubs will be published.

Answered by Nick Gibb

In June 2022, the Department for Education and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport published ‘The power of music to change lives: a national plan for music education’. The plan sets out the Government’s priorities until 2030 for music education for children and young people, including plans to strengthen the success of Music Hubs.

As part of the plan, the Department announced its intention to re-compete the role of Music Hub Lead Organisations and to transition to a Music Hub structure, where Hubs strategically cover multiple Local Authority areas.

Arts Council England, as the fundholder of the Music Hub Programme, has led on the consultation process. To date, there has been a series of focus groups which were conducted in January 2023 and surveys regarding the proposal to change the Music Hub’s structure and geographical areas. In March 2023, Arts Council England published the proposed new areas and invited those affected by the proposed changes to provide feedback via a survey.

Arts Council England published the new Music Hub geographical areas on Tuesday 6 June, and issued a public notification on the timetable for the Music Hubs competition on 25 May 2023. They will also share how the final areas were informed by sector feedback from the most recent consultation in March.


Written Question
Babies: Health Services
Friday 17th March 2023

Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much Start for Life funding her Department budgeted for distribution to participating local authorities in the 2022-23 financial year; and how much and what proportion of that funding was received by those local authorities as of 31 January 2023.

Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero

The department budgeted the following to spend on grants for the 75 local authorities on the Family Hubs Start for Life Programme in 2022/23:

  • Family Hubs Transformation Fund Grant: £17,480,000 (Revenue and Capital)
  • Family Hubs Parenting Support Grant: £9,800,000
  • Home Learning Environment Grant: £12,900,000

The remainder of the grants paid to local authorities for the Family Hubs Start for Life Programme in 2022-23 are grants from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). These grants cover perinatal mental health, including parent and infant relationships, infant feeding, parent and carer panels, Start for Life publishing, and workforce trials.

As of 31 January 2023, all local authorities had been paid their first of two grants for 2022/23. The Department have paid the following in grants to local authorities up to and including 31 January 2023:

  • Family Hubs Transformation Fund Grant: £8,740,000(Revenue and Capital)
  • Family Hubs Parenting Support Grant: £4,873,851
  • Home Learning Environment Grant: £6,403,518

Local authorities will receive their second and final grant payment for 2022/23 in March 2023, with the majority receiving this by 13 March 2023.


Written Question
Pre-school Education: Finance
Wednesday 21st December 2022

Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of funding provision for early years settings.

Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero

In the 2021 Spending Review the department announced additional funding for early years of £160 million in 2022/23, £180 million in 2023/24 and £170 million in 2024/25, compared to the 2021/22 financial year.

The department has recently announced that we will invest an additional £20 million into early years funding in 2023/24, on top of the additional funding announced in the 2021 Spending Review. Taken together, this will help support providers at a national level with the additional National Living Wage costs associated with delivering the free childcare entitlements next year. The department will also be investing an additional £10 million into Maintained Nursery School supplementary funding from 2023/24.

In 2023/24, local authorities are set to receive average funding increases of 3.4% for the 3- and 4-year-old free childcare entitlements and 4% for the 2- year-old entitlement, compared to their 2022/23 rates.

The department has again increased the early years pupil premium, which for 2023/24 will provide up to £353 per eligible child per year to support better outcomes for disadvantaged 3- and 4-year- olds. The department has also increased the Disability Access Fund, which will be worth at least £828 per eligible child per year.

The department continues to engage with sector stakeholders and local authorities to monitor the sufficiency of childcare places and sustainability of the early years sector.


Speech in Commons Chamber - Thu 24 Nov 2022
Independent Review of Children’s Social Care

Speech Link

View all Wera Hobhouse (LD - Bath) contributions to the debate on: Independent Review of Children’s Social Care

Speech in Commons Chamber - Thu 24 Nov 2022
Independent Review of Children’s Social Care

Speech Link

View all Wera Hobhouse (LD - Bath) contributions to the debate on: Independent Review of Children’s Social Care

Speech in Commons Chamber - Thu 24 Nov 2022
Independent Review of Children’s Social Care

Speech Link

View all Wera Hobhouse (LD - Bath) contributions to the debate on: Independent Review of Children’s Social Care

Speech in Commons Chamber - Thu 24 Nov 2022
Independent Review of Children’s Social Care

Speech Link

View all Wera Hobhouse (LD - Bath) contributions to the debate on: Independent Review of Children’s Social Care