Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to increase the number of sixth form places in the London Borough of Havering.

Answered by Robert Halfon

The department launched a second round of the post-16 capacity fund in September 2022. This made up to £140 million available to provide additional capacity in 16-19 providers, in areas where there is due to be a demographic increase in students in September 2024 and there is not enough existing capacity to accommodate that increase. We will announce the outcome this spring. Successful projects are expected to complete and accommodate additional students from September 2024.

Havering Sixth Form Campus is part of New City College, and supports a wide range of learning options for 16-18 year olds in the borough, as promoted by our further education skills reform agenda, more employment focused learning, technical education through T Levels, and a wide range of apprenticeships.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential effect of changes to Level 3 Qualifications on the education of 16 to 18 year-olds.

Answered by Robert Halfon

The department has published impact assessments to reflect the potential effect of reforms to Level 3, post-16 qualifications in England on the education of 16 to 19 year olds.

The most recent impact assessment, published in March 2023, provides an overview of the potential effects on students aged 16 to 19 resulting from the proposed removal of public funding approval from those qualifications that have been assessed as overlapping with T Levels. This can be accessed here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1146228/EIA_updated_final_wave_1_2_T_Level_overlap_inc_Health_and_Science.pdf.

A further impact assessment, published in July 2022, which reflects all planned reforms to qualifications at Level 3, is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1091841/Revised_Review_of_post-16_qualifications_at_level_3_in_England_impact_assessment.pdf.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support her Department is providing to sixth-forms to transition from providing BTECs to T-Levels, including with securing industry placements.

Answered by Robert Halfon

The department has extensive packages of support available to ensure schools with sixth forms, sixth form colleges and other providers are prepared to deliver T Levels. This includes:

• One-to-one support with implementation, planning, and access to networks of other providers offering T Levels.
• Up-front funding for the additional hours involved in teaching a T Level and funding to support delivery of industry placements.
• A full range of T Level professional development programme resources and support, including the T Level Professional Development Programme available to all teachers that will teach T Levels.
• Tailored advice and support to providers to deliver industry placements.
• Over £400 million in capital funding made available to T Level providers, to bid for new and refurbished buildings and to fund specialist equipment.

The department has invested £245 million over the past four years to help providers prepare for industry placements and build relationships with local employers. We recently announced a £12 million employer support fund to reimburse employers for the costs of offering placements. The ‘Connect with employers interested in T Levels’ service enables providers to find employers in their area.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many 16 to 19 year olds withdrew from their (a) sixth form and (b) further education courses in academic years (i) 2020-21, (ii) 2021-22 and (iii) 2022-23 to date.

Answered by Robert Halfon

The department has published retention data for students at the end of 16-18 study by institution type. The latest data available is for the 2020/21 academic year, which can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/a-level-and-other-16-to-18-results/2020-21. The retention rate is the proportion of students who are retained to the end of the ‘core aim’ (or main learning aim) of their study programme at a school or college.

Retention data for 2021/22 will be published on 30 March 2023 in the next update and will be available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/announcements/a-level-and-other-16-to-18-results-2022-revised--2.

Since 2010, the department has put in place a range of policies that have significantly reduced the quantity of young people designated as ‘not in education, employment or training’ (NEET). The proportion of 16 to 24-year-olds NEET in 2022 was 12.3%, which is down 3.2 percentage points since 2010. This information can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/neet-statistics-annual-brief/2022.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the percentage of school pupils in England in Years 12 and 13 not currently studying Mathematics.

Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

As seen in the table below, the department estimates that around 54% of pupils in all state-funded settings in England at the end of key stage 4 in 2018/19 did not participate in maths at post-16. This data has been taken from the following publication: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/post-16-maths-participation-for-pupils-ending-ks4-in-2018-to-2019.

Table 1: Estimates of post-16 maths participation for pupils at the end of KS4 in 2018/19

Source: KS4 data (2018/19), 16 to 18 attainment data (2020/21), Core Maths data (2020/21 – previously unpublished)

*To meet the condition of funding, a student must study an approved qualification. These are GCSEs, functional skills level 2 and certain other qualifications, known as ‘stepping stone’ qualifications. Full-time students who have a GCSE grade 3 or grade D must study a maths and/or English GCSE.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, if any, of the extent to which learners have progressed into school sixth forms at a greater rate than in prior years in 2021 due to the increases in the (1) number, and (2) proportion, of 16–17 year old learners meeting minimum academic requirements for sixth form entry.

Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Institutions decide their academic requirements for sixth form entry.

Trends in take-up of post-16 education suggest that the increased number of young people attaining higher GCSE grades in 2020 and 2021 has contributed to a greater proportion of young people attending school sixth forms and sixth form colleges rather than general further education (FE) colleges. Higher numbers of young people attaining grade 4 or above in GCSE English and maths are likely to have resulted in a lower number of young people re-taking those examinations because of the way the requirement on institutions operates, however, we recognise that some students with these grades will still require support for their future attainment.

These trends in GCSE grades could have contributed to an increase in study at level 3 and a decrease in study at level 2 at FE colleges. Between 2019 and 2021 the number of 16-17-year-olds in FE colleges studying a level 2 qualification dropped 8.7% and the number studying a level 3 qualification increased 14.7%. This represents a 1.6% fall in the proportion of the age 16-17 population studying level 2 and a 1.4% increase in the proportion of the age 16-17 population studying level 3.

Funding for the academic year 2022/23 is based on student numbers in the academic year 2021/22. Provisional data (which excludes sixth form colleges) suggests that FE colleges had in aggregate a fall of just over 1% in their 16-19 students in 2021/22 compared with the previous year, which has had an impact on funding. However, the higher funding rates mean that despite this slight fall in student numbers, colleges will see a significant increase in funding in 2022/23. We expect to see only a small proportion of colleges with a cash reduction in 16-19 funding in 2022/23 compared with 2021/22 when allocations are published. Each year we look to put in place exceptional in-year growth funding, subject to affordability, to help providers that see a significant increase in students, and we will be looking carefully at what can be put in place to help colleges which see an increase in students in 2022/23.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average level of per pupil funding was in (a) actual and (b) real terms for sixth form funding in 2018-19; and what that the equivalent figures are for 2022-23.

Answered by Robin Walker

The average Total Programme Funding per 16 to 19-year-old student in the 2018/19 academic year was £4,504.

The equivalent figure for the 2022/23 academic year is not yet available.

In 2018/19, the base rate of funding per 16 and 17-year-old student was £4,000. This was the largest component in the Total Programme Funding per student. In the 2022/23 academic year, the base rate will be £4,542. This is an increase of 13.6% in cash terms, or 2% in real terms over the base rate in 2018/19.

Found: Federation Trust Hammersmith Academy Trust Hampton Academies Trust Hamwic Education Trust Haringey Sixth

Found: School WiltshireHarefield Academy Trust 5051218The Harefield Academy - Uxbridge HillingdonHaringey Sixth

Found: Hampton Academies Trust • Hamwic Education Trust • Hanley and Upton Educational Trust • Haringey Sixth

Found: Wiltshire Harefield Academy Trust 5051218 The Harefield Academy - Uxbridge Hillingdon Haringey Sixth

Found: The case you make for sixth form education is forthright – but it is backed by the evidence.

Found: upgrading the bus stop/shelter (£25,000); an education contribution towards nursery, primary, secondary and sixth