Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that pupils in Bolton South East constituency have access to a secular or community-ethos school.
Answered by Robin Walker
The government is committed to offering parents and children a diverse education system consisting of a wide variety of schools and this includes faith schools. Within Bolton South East, 24 of the 47 primary and secondary schools are not designated as faith schools.
The vast majority of parents are offered a place at a school of their choice. For the Bolton local authority, in 2021, 97.6% of parents received an offer from one of their top three choices of primary school, while 94.4 % received an offer from one of their top three choices of secondary school.
Faith schools have played an important role in our education system for many years and are popular with parents. They have a strong track record of delivering excellent education and achieving high standards and, on average, perform better than non-faith schools. These schools, like all other schools, play a vital role in promoting integration and supporting pupils to understand different faiths and communities.
Although faith schools have greater freedom to maintain their religious ethos, they remain subject to the same obligations as other state funded schools to promote community cohesion and integration, and to teach a broad and balanced curriculum.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department for Education:
What steps he is taking to support sixth form students to recover from disruption to their education as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Gillian Keegan
We recognise that this has been a difficult period for sixth form students and so in this academic year we provided a £96 million 16-19 Tuition Fund for all providers of 16-19 education, including school sixth forms and sixth form colleges to provide catch up tuition for those most impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak. We recently announced a £102 million extension of the Fund for the 2021/22 academic year to ensure that students can recover from the disruption and continue to progress in their education. We have also appointed Sir Kevan Collins, as Education Recovery Commissioner, to advise the government on the approach for education recovery and will be working with him to develop a full catch-up programme across the education sector around focusing on time, teaching and targeted interventions.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he has taken to support victims of the July 2020 cladding-based fire in the Cube, Bolton.
Answered by Michelle Donelan
The fire at The Cube, a privately owned hall of residence in Bolton, took place on 15 November 2019. The department was made aware of the fire and monitored the situation. The support for students following the fire was provided by the University of Bolton. Students were found alternative accommodation in the city. My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, wrote to all university Vice Chancellors following the fire asking them to review their fire safety procedures in buildings they own and to seek assurances on fire safety from private owners of student residential blocks. All of the universities responded to this request.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate the Government has made of the rate of transmission of covid-19 in SEND schools in England; what steps his Department is taking to support SEND schools in Bolton to reduce covid-19 transmission; and what assessment he has made of the potential merits of prioritising SEND school staff in the covid-19 vaccination rollout.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department continues to work closely with other government departments throughout its response to the COVID-19 outbreak, including Public Health England (PHE) and the Department of Health and Social Care, as well as stakeholders across the sector. We continue to work to ensure that our policy is based on the latest scientific and medical advice, to continue to develop comprehensive guidance based on the PHE-endorsed ‘system of controls’ and to understand the impact and effectiveness of these measures on staff, pupils and parents.
The Department has recently published updated guidance for special schools and other specialist settings, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-for-full-opening-special-schools-and-other-specialist-settings.
The Department has also published its evidence summary on COVID-19 – children, young people and education settings, which can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/963639/DfE_Evidence_summary_COVID-19_-_children__young_people_and_education_settings.pdf
The system of control measures as outlined in our guidance create an environment for staff, children, and young people where the risk of transmission of the infection is substantially reduced. Schools, colleges and nurseries, therefore, need to continue to implement these controls to the fullest extent possible.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) are the independent experts who advise the Government on which vaccine/s the UK should use and provide advice on who should be offered them. The JCVI have advised that the second phase of vaccine prioritisation should continue to be based on age. They advise that an age-based approach remains the most effective way of reducing death and hospitalisation from COVID-19 and will ensure more people are protected more quickly. The second phase of the vaccine rollout will begin from mid-April and will aim to offer every adult aged 18 and over a first dose of the vaccine by 31 July.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 22 February 2021 on Students: Coronavirus, whether Bolton Sixth Form college will receive increased bursary funding.
Answered by Gillian Keegan
We are very grateful for all the work 16-19 providers are doing to support students through the COVID-19 outbreak. We are also keenly aware of the pressures being faced by those providers and the financial difficulties that some students have.
We have made available additional funding for colleges that have seen growth in the number of students attending this year, including Bolton Sixth Form College, which received an extra £19,000 for the 16-19 Bursary Fund and an extra £8,000 for free meals – these funds can be used together to help students in need.
Last year we enabled providers to apply for additional Bursary Fund to help them meet the cost of devices and connectivity. In December we also announced that 16-19 providers with students in receipt of free meals can apply for an allocation of equipment from our Get Help With Technology scheme. As of 17 February 2021, nearly 57,000 devices have been delivered or dispatched to further education providers. Bolton Sixth Form College ordered, and has received, 262 devices.
We continue to keep the Bursary Fund situation under review, with a view to considering what more we can do to support students and providers through this difficult time.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to support nurseries in Bolton to reduce transmission of covid-19; and what assessment he has made of the potential merits of prioritising nursery staff in the covid-19 vaccination rollout.
Answered by Vicky Ford
We are grateful to early years staff as they continue to provide support to children and families during the period of national lockdown.
The department continues to work closely with other government departments throughout its response to the COVID-19 outbreak, including Public Health England (PHE) and the Department of Health and Social Care, as well as stakeholders across the sector, to ensure that our policy is based on the latest scientific and medical advice, to continue to develop comprehensive guidance based on the PHE-endorsed ‘system of controls’, and to understand the impact and effectiveness of these measures on staff, children and parents.
As new evidence or data emerges, the department updates its advice accordingly to ensure that all our settings have the right safety measures in place. The latest guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-early-years-and-childcare-closures.
The ‘system of controls’ measures outlined in our guidance create an environment for children and staff where the risk of transmission of infection is substantially reduced. Settings therefore need to continue to implement these controls to the fullest extent possible, including the new advice that face coverings are recommended in early years settings for staff and adult visitors in situations where social distancing between adults is not possible, for example, when moving around in corridors and communal areas.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) are the independent experts who advise the government on which vaccine/s the UK should use and provide advice on who should be offered them. The JCVI will provide advice on the next phase of the vaccine rollout. The government is committed to offering every adult a dose of the vaccine by 31 July 2021.
We continue to work with the early years sector to understand how they can best be supported to ensure that sufficient safe, appropriate and affordable childcare is available for those who need it now, and for all families who need it in the longer term.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department plans to allocate funding additional to existing funding arrangements, known as the minimum growth award, to colleges that are facing increased pressure on their bursary budgets as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Gillian Keegan
Each year, we revisit the method used for awarding growth and the thresholds at which individual institutions become eligible for a growth award, with the key considerations being the levels of growth in the sector and affordability.
In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, we have amended the method for calculating growth awards for this year. This allows for more colleges that have seen an increase in student numbers for the 2020/21 academic year to receive extra funding to help them with the cost of supporting these additional students.
As well as providing additional programme funding, an increased student number allocation resulting from this process may also result in increased 16-19 bursary funds and further education free meals allocations to institutions. In addition, we are releasing additional bursary funding outside the main growth process where analysis of the data suggested that an increased student number could put an institution’s bursary allocation under considerable pressure.
We are contacting the institutions eligible for additional extra funding directly.
We continue to keep the Bursary Fund situation under review, including gathering evidence, with a view to considering what more we can do to support students and providers through this difficult time.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much Official Development Assistance his Department was allocated in the financial years (a) 2019-20 and (b) 2020-21; and what estimate his Department has made of the amount of Official Development Assistance his Department will be allocated for the financial year 2021-22.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department for Education’s estimates of spending on Official Development Assistance (ODA) primarily relate to the provision of education to child and unaccompanied child asylum seekers in the 12 months after they make an asylum claim in the UK. The Department does not have a separate funding stream for educating asylum seeker children and is not allocated an ODA budget. Instead, to calculate ODA spending we estimate how much of the wider core schools funding for England is allocated due to having these children on schools’ rolls.
The Department’s estimated spending on ODA in each calendar year from 2015 to 2019 is given below:
| 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 |
Department for Education spend classified as ODA (£ million) | 22 | 28 | 24 | 20 | 21 |
The level of spending in future years will be dependent on the number of asylum seeker children that arrive in the country.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the 16-19 Bursary Fund for the 2020-21 school year (a) nationally and (b) in areas particularly financially affected by the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Gillian Keegan
We are very grateful for all the work 16-19 providers are doing to support students through the COVID-19 outbreak. We are also keenly aware of the pressures being faced by those providers and the financial difficulties that some students have.
Last year we enabled providers to apply for additional Bursary Fund to help them meet the cost of devices and connectivity, and this year we have announced that 16-19 providers can apply for an allocation of devices from our Get Help with Technology scheme.
We continue to keep the Bursary Fund situation under review, including gathering evidence, with a view to considering what more we can do to support students and providers through this difficult time.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will bring forward proposals to make emergency 16-19 bursary funding available to providers who have depleted their allocations and are unable to continue supporting their low-income students due to levels of demand during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Gillian Keegan
We are very grateful for all the work 16-19 providers are doing to support students through the COVID-19 outbreak. We are also keenly aware of the pressures being faced by those providers and the financial difficulties that some students have.
Last year we enabled providers to apply for additional Bursary Fund to help them meet the cost of devices and connectivity, and this year we have announced that 16-19 providers can apply for an allocation of devices from our Get Help with Technology scheme.
We continue to keep the Bursary Fund situation under review, including gathering evidence, with a view to considering what more we can do to support students and providers through this difficult time.