Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what level of religious education is legally required to have been achieved by the time a student reaches 16 at (a) maintained and (b) academic schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
State-funded schools in England have a duty to teach religious education (RE) to all pupils aged 5 to 18. While academies, free schools and most maintained schools designated as having a religious character may design and follow their own curriculum, all other maintained schools must follow their area’s locally agreed syllabus for RE.
A locally agreed syllabus sets out what pupils should be taught and may include the expected standards of pupils’ performance at different stages. Legislation requires that every agreed syllabus must reflect ‘that the religious traditions of Great Britain are in the main Christian, while taking account of the teaching and practices of the other principal religions represented in Great Britain’.
Neither legislation nor academies’ funding agreements prescribe how much time should be devoted to RE or how it should be provided. However, we would expect an academy to have a plan or scheme of work which demonstrates how provision across the year groups is structured to ensure that all pupils receive RE which matches the legal requirement for an agreed syllabus as set out above.
Although not mandatory for all schools, teaching an accredited religious studies qualification at key stage 4 may be required by a locally agreed syllabus; and many schools teach the religious studies GCSE. The Department has set out the educational outcomes and content coverage required for GCSE specifications in this subject, which can be found at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/gcse-religious-studies. Where key stage 4 pupils do not take a religious studies qualification, the requirement to teach religious education still applies.
Department for Education guidance on religious education for maintained schools is at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/religious-education-guidance-in-english-schools-non-statutory-guidance-2010; and for academies and free schools at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/re-and-collective-worship-in-academies-and-free-schools/religious-education-re-and-collective-worship-in-academies-and-free-schools.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to provide financial support to students that are undertaking teacher training courses and were not eligible for a bursary in September 2019.
Answered by Nick Gibb
All students undertaking a non-salaried initial teacher training (ITT) course can apply for financial support from Student Finance England. The standard student finance offer is available to both undergraduate and postgraduate non-salaried trainee teachers, regardless of whether or not they are also eligible for an ITT bursary.
The student finance offer for these trainee teachers includes a means-tested maintenance loan to support their living costs. Additional grant funding is also available to those who have children, adult dependents or a disability. Finally, all non-salaried trainee teachers can apply for a tuition fee loan, so they do not need to pay fees upfront.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if his Department will make an assessment of the (a) environmental, (b) economic and (c) educational merits of installing solar panels on schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Reduction in energy use in new and existing school buildings to meet the net zero carbon emissions by 2050 target is a priority for the UK Government. Generating sustainable energy, where sites and buildings allow, is supported by Salix loans available to schools.
Research into the environmental, economic and educational merit of photovoltaic solar panels is well founded and the Department welcomes schools developing educational outcomes that support work to mitigate climate change.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the upcoming Comprehensive Spending Review will prioritise funding services for disabled children and implement the Disabled Children's Partnership's proposal for an early intervention and family resilience scheme.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Long-term funding for local government services, including children’s services, will be considered at this year’s Spending Review. My right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has announced that - assuming a Brexit deal is agreed over the next few weeks – he will launch the Spending Review (from 2020-21 to 2022-23) before the summer recess, to conclude alongside Budget in the autumn. The department has already begun work to be well prepared.
The government is committed to ensuring all disabled children and their families lead safe, fulfilling lives, and appreciates the ongoing work of the Disabled Children’s Partnership in this respect.
‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ sets out how local authorities should provide effective, evidence-based services to protect and promote the welfare of children, including disabled children. The guidance was updated on 04 July 2018 and states that it is better to provide services addressing needs early, rather than reacting later. The statutory duty to provide short breaks, introduced in 2011, falls on local authorities.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the continuation of Family Drug and Alcohol Courts.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
A network of local Family Drug and Alcohol Courts (FDAC) operates across England offering important support to families. Local FDACs are funded by those local areas who choose to establish or commission these services locally.
We have recently established the Children’s Social Care What Works Centre which will help local areas to better understand the evidence base so they can make more informed decisions about which programmes to commission to suit local needs.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps are being taken to ensure that the graduation rate of the Family Drug and Alcohol Court is maintained beyond September 2018.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Local Family Drug and Alcohol Courts (FDACs) will continue to be funded, as they and other innovative models similar to FDAC currently are, by those local areas who choose to establish or commission these services locally. It is important that families are supported to overcome issues related to alcohol and substance misuse, and the government is investing £16 billion in public health services and has set out a wide-ranging drug strategy to address this.
We understand that the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust is considering the future of the FDAC National Unit, which they have run since its establishment in 2015. Officials are currently working with the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust to ensure that the impact of the potential closure of the FDAC National Unit on local sites is minimised and that any resources developed by the FDAC National Unit remains accessible to them, and others, interested in the FDAC model in the future.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the closure of the Family Drug and Alcohol Court on rates of substance abuse by people who would otherwise have gone through that Court.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Local Family Drug and Alcohol Courts (FDACs) will continue to be funded, as they and other innovative models similar to FDAC currently are, by those local areas who choose to establish or commission these services locally. It is important that families are supported to overcome issues related to alcohol and substance misuse, and the government is investing £16 billion in public health services and has set out a wide-ranging drug strategy to address this.
We understand that the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust is considering the future of the FDAC National Unit, which they have run since its establishment in 2015. Officials are currently working with the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust to ensure that the impact of the potential closure of the FDAC National Unit on local sites is minimised and that any resources developed by the FDAC National Unit remains accessible to them, and others, interested in the FDAC model in the future.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans hold discussions with the National Deaf Children’s Society on changes to funding for deaf children’s education.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
I refer the hon. Member for Bolton South East to the answer I gave on 4 June 2018 to Question 146815: https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2018-05-22/146815/.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve child protection for families where there are allegations of domestic abuse.
Answered by Edward Timpson
We are committed to delivering long term, sustainable improvements to the children’s social care system. Putting Children First: Delivering our vision for excellent children’s social care (July 2016) sets out the government’s reform programme for children’s social care in England for the next five years.
The government recognises the life changing impact domestic abuse can have on the lives of children. That is why we have expanded the Troubled Families Programme until 2020 to work with an additional 400,000 families, including those affected by domestic abuse.
The government’s Violence Against Women Strategy (April 2016), stresses the importance of taking an integrated whole-family approach to addressing and stopping violence and abuse. The government has provided £2m in funding to support new models developed by Safelives and Women’s Aid to identify and support victims and their families at an earlier stage and provide effective wrap-around support.
The Department for Education is funding four grants, totalling around £900,000, from 2016 to March 2018 to Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) organisations working on issues concerning domestic abuse. Further details of the VCS grants can be found here; https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-backs-projects-to-help-safeguard-vulnerable-children
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the merits of the recommendation in the Fourth report of the Education Committee, Session 2015-16, HC 481, that all looked-after children should have a mental health assessment carried out by a mental health professional.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The Government response to the Education Committee report into the Mental Health and Wellbeing of Looked-After Children is being jointly drafted by the Department of Health and the Department for Education. Ministers in both departments are assessing the recommendations in their entirety and the joint response, expected to be published after recess, reflects the importance that both departments place on joint working to meet the needs of this vulnerable group.
The Department of Health and the Department for Education have already established an Expert Working Group to consider how to improve the mental health and well-being of looked-after children, children adopted from care, care leavers and children leaving care under a special Guardianship Order or Child Arrangements Order. The Expert Working Group will include a focus on assessment and identification of mental health issues and difficulties.
The group, co-chaired by Professor Peter Fonagy, Freud Memorial Professor of Psychoanalysis, University College London, and Alison O’Sullivan, former president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, first met on 11 July 2016. Meeting notes, Terms of Reference and a work programme will shortly be available on the website of the Social Care Institute for Excellence (http://www.scie.org.uk/) which are co-ordinating the work of this group.