Asked by: Alyn Smith (Scottish National Party - Stirling)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress her Department has made in implementing the objectives of the International Education Strategy to increase the (a) value of education exports and (b) number of international higher education students studying in the UK.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The International Education Strategy (IES) is a UK wide strategy which commits to growing the value of education exports. An update to the department’s IES was published on 26 May 2023. This is the third annual progress update to the original 2019 IES. A link to the 2023 update can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-education-strategy-2023-update.
The UK has met the IES international student ambition of 600 thousand per year by 2030 for two years running in both 2020/21 and 2021/22. The department is on track and will continue working towards the IES education export ambition of £35 billion per year by 2030 with £27.9 billion revenue in 2021. Data used to track progress against these two ambitions is published annually.
As the International Education Champion, Professor Sir Steve Smith continues to promote UK education export growth and supports ministers to engage in strategic discussions on progress on implementing the strategy with the education sector.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the potential (a) merits of extending eligibility for Disabled Students’ Allowance to international students and (b) impact of the existing eligibility criteria on educational inequalities in higher education.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The government appreciates the significant economic and cultural contribution that international students make to UK higher education (HE). The department’s offer to international students remains very competitive and the department is committed to ensuring the UK remains a destination of choice for the brightest and best international students from across the globe.
To be eligible for Disabled Students Allowance, students must: (a) meet the personal eligibility criteria for student finance within the Education (Student Support) Regulations 2011 and be studying a course designated for student support; and (b) have a disability as defined in the Equality Act 2010.
Entitlement to student support and home fee status is limited to eligible students who are undertaking HE courses offered by UK institutions that are designated for support. This is to ensure that the HE student finance system remains financially sustainable. The government has no plans to extend home fee status and student support to international students.
All HE providers must fulfil their responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 in their support for all disabled HE students regardless of whether they are home or international students.
Asked by: Alyn Smith (Scottish National Party - Stirling)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to (a) promote and (b) protect education exports.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The International Education Strategy (IES) is a UK wide strategy which commits to growing the value of education exports. An update to the department’s IES was published on 26 May 2023. This is the third annual progress update to the original 2019 IES. A link to the 2023 update can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-education-strategy-2023-update.
The UK has met the IES international student ambition of 600 thousand per year by 2030 for two years running in both 2020/21 and 2021/22. The department is on track and will continue working towards the IES education export ambition of £35 billion per year by 2030 with £27.9 billion revenue in 2021. Data used to track progress against these two ambitions is published annually.
As the International Education Champion, Professor Sir Steve Smith continues to promote UK education export growth and supports ministers to engage in strategic discussions on progress on implementing the strategy with the education sector.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of her Department’s (a) advertising and (b) marketing expenditure was on (i) local newspapers in print and online, (ii) national newspapers in print and online, (iii) social media, (iv) search engines, (v) broadcast and on-demand television and (vi) other channels in the most recent year for which data is available.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
In 2022/23, the department continued to deliver communications activity in support of ministerial priorities and the wider government communications plan across its remit of skills, schools and families. This included campaigns to support the government’s ambitious skills reform programme, maximising take up of childcare entitlements, inspiring more people to teach in schools and a new campaign to attract professionals to share their skills by becoming teachers in further education.
Most communications continue to be delivered in–house at no additional cost, as part of cross-government campaigns or at low cost by supporting and co–ordinating partners’ activity. Government marketing plays a crucial role in achieving operational and policy objectives, as well as driving behaviour change. Where paid-for communications are used, these are subject to the Cabinet Office’s advertising, marketing and communications spending controls. These controls ensure that, where taxpayer money is being spent on government communications, it is cost-effective, co-ordinated and reflects functional standards and professional best practices. Paid-for communications also comply with government and departmental procurement or governance policies and processes.
The latest period for which final and consolidated total spend across all Department for Education campaigns is available for the 2022/23 financial year. Spend across the channels requested is outlined below:
Media type | 22/23 |
TV and Broadcast Video on Demand | £7,769,044 |
Search Engine | £3,215,500 |
Social | £4,842,978 |
Print (local and national) | £222,623 |
Other channels | £10,664,887 |
Total | £26,715,032 |
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 19 February 2024 to Question 13342 on Special Educational Needs, if she will allocate additional funding to Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council to help increase its capacity to conduct education health and care plan assessments.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The cost of local authorities’ Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment and planning function is paid from authorities’ general fund from, for example, council tax, business rates or the Revenue Support Grant provided by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC). Any increase in capacity for the EHC needs assessment team must be met from the local authority’s general fund.
Stockport special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) Local Area Partnership’s Accelerated Progress Plan (APP), which has been in place since the Ofsted and Care Quality Commission (CQC) joint area SEND revisit in September 2022, includes actions to address the quality of EHC plans in the area. Department for Education officials and NHS (England) SEND advisers have been providing support, challenge and advice in monitoring the progress of the APP.
Stockport is also one of the 55 local areas which have been invited to join the government’s £85 million Delivering Better Value Programme to support local areas to achieve maximum value for money in delivering SEND provision, whilst maintaining and improving the outcomes they achieve. One of the workstreams being funded by this grant is ‘Governance and Accountability of SEN Support and EHC Needs Assessments’ through which the department is assisting Stockport to improve their EHC plan processes and the quality of plans.
The department wants to ensure that EHC needs assessments, where required, are conducted as quickly as possible, so that children and young people can access the support they need. In March 2023, the government set out its plans to reform and improve the SEND system through its SEND and alternative provision (AP) Improvement Plan. The plan commits to establishing a single national system that delivers for every child and young person with SEND so that they enjoy their childhood, achieve good outcomes and are well prepared for adulthood and employment.
In the short term, the department is working hard to improve the current EHC plan system through a range of measures to improve the SEND system. The department is investing heavily in the SEND system. Examples of the department’s investments include: improving specialist capacity by investing over £21 million to train 400 more educational psychologists from 2024, investing £2.6 billion between 2022 and 2025 to fund new special and AP places and improve existing provision (including announcing 41 new special free schools and 38 special free schools that are currently in the pipeline), investing £30 million to develop innovative approaches for short breaks for children, young people and their families over three years and investing over £7 million to fund extension of the Alternative Provision Specialist Taskforce pilot programme, (delivering now in 22 local authorities) to run until 2025.
The department is also putting in place measures to improve the SEND system in the longer term, so that where an EHC plan is needed they can be issued as quickly as possible, so that children and young people can access the support they need.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 19 February 2024 to Question 13342 on Special Educational Needs, what steps her Department is taking to help Stockport Council (a) increase its capacity to undertake and (b) improve the quality of its education, health and care plan assessments.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The cost of local authorities’ Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment and planning function is paid from authorities’ general fund from, for example, council tax, business rates or the Revenue Support Grant provided by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC). Any increase in capacity for the EHC needs assessment team must be met from the local authority’s general fund.
Stockport special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) Local Area Partnership’s Accelerated Progress Plan (APP), which has been in place since the Ofsted and Care Quality Commission (CQC) joint area SEND revisit in September 2022, includes actions to address the quality of EHC plans in the area. Department for Education officials and NHS (England) SEND advisers have been providing support, challenge and advice in monitoring the progress of the APP.
Stockport is also one of the 55 local areas which have been invited to join the government’s £85 million Delivering Better Value Programme to support local areas to achieve maximum value for money in delivering SEND provision, whilst maintaining and improving the outcomes they achieve. One of the workstreams being funded by this grant is ‘Governance and Accountability of SEN Support and EHC Needs Assessments’ through which the department is assisting Stockport to improve their EHC plan processes and the quality of plans.
The department wants to ensure that EHC needs assessments, where required, are conducted as quickly as possible, so that children and young people can access the support they need. In March 2023, the government set out its plans to reform and improve the SEND system through its SEND and alternative provision (AP) Improvement Plan. The plan commits to establishing a single national system that delivers for every child and young person with SEND so that they enjoy their childhood, achieve good outcomes and are well prepared for adulthood and employment.
In the short term, the department is working hard to improve the current EHC plan system through a range of measures to improve the SEND system. The department is investing heavily in the SEND system. Examples of the department’s investments include: improving specialist capacity by investing over £21 million to train 400 more educational psychologists from 2024, investing £2.6 billion between 2022 and 2025 to fund new special and AP places and improve existing provision (including announcing 41 new special free schools and 38 special free schools that are currently in the pipeline), investing £30 million to develop innovative approaches for short breaks for children, young people and their families over three years and investing over £7 million to fund extension of the Alternative Provision Specialist Taskforce pilot programme, (delivering now in 22 local authorities) to run until 2025.
The department is also putting in place measures to improve the SEND system in the longer term, so that where an EHC plan is needed they can be issued as quickly as possible, so that children and young people can access the support they need.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of childminders on the (a) Early Years Register and (b) Childcare Register in (i) each region and (ii) each local authority in each year since 2018.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This is a matter for His Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Sir Martyn Oliver. I have asked him to write to the hon. Member and a copy of his reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of employing veterans in schools to provide courses on leadership and resilience for (a) teachers and (b) students.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
A key principle behind the government's plan for education is to give teachers and school leaders the freedom to use their professional judgement to do what works best for their pupils. As such, headteachers are ultimately responsible for employment in their schools and the department trusts them to take decisions about the right mix of qualifications, skills and experience that they expect teachers in their schools to have.
The department recently reviewed the Initial Teacher Training (ITT) Core Content Framework (CCF) and Early Career Framework (ECF) alongside each other and revised the ITT CCF and the ECF into the combined and updated Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework (ITTECF). This now covers the first three years or more at the start of a teacher’s career, and sets out the entitlement of every trainee and early career teacher (ECT) to the core body of knowledge, skills and behaviours that define great teaching. The ITTECF is universal and designed to work for all teachers, across all phases and subjects.
Beyond this, school leaders are responsible for ensuring their workforce has appropriate training to meet the needs of all pupils, which is in line with the department’s position on school autonomy and school leaders being best placed to assess the needs of their pupils and workforce.
The government remains committed to supporting veterans with a passion for teaching to enter the profession, both in schools and the further education sector. The department is working with the Ministry of Defence to ensure veterans are aware of the range of programmes and support available through the department’s services and bursaries.
Veterans are eligible for a tax-free undergraduate bursary of £40,000 if they are:
Graduate veterans may also be eligible for a postgraduate scholarship or bursary if they are training to teach priority subjects.
More information on how the department support veterans to become teachers, including the offer of one-to-one support from a teacher training advisor, can be found here: https://getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/funding-and-support/if-youre-a-veteran.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the prevalence of schools (a) educating pupils on organ donation and (b) using resources produced by NHS Blood and Transplant.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Schools have flexibility over how they deliver the curriculum and cover important topics within it in a way that works for their context and communities. The department does not have data on how and whether schools are teaching about organ donation, but there are plenty of opportunities within the national curriculum for them to do so.
The teaching of blood, tissue and organs is covered in the biology national curriculum to pupils in England between the ages of 11 and 14 in key stage 3. While organ donation is not specifically mentioned in the national curriculum, schools may choose to cover it here.
At primary level, schools can talk about organ donation more generally in an age-appropriate way as part of the relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) curriculum, which includes content on physical health and mental wellbeing. The Oak National Academy, an arm's length public body responsible for creating free curriculum resources, has produced a lesson that can be taught to pupils between the ages of 7 and 11 in key stage 2. This includes a section on organs, the transplant waiting list and relevant legislation.
Organ donation can be covered in more detail in RSHE for pupils aged 14 to 16 in key stage 4 within the context of healthy lifestyles and the choices that individuals make in adulthood.
Departmental officials are working with NHS Blood and Transplant to arrange to signpost schools to education resources on organ donation developed by NHS Blood and Transplant and its charity partners.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to paragraph 3.15 of the Spring Budget 2024, HC 560, what weighting was given to (a) average earnings growth, (b) changes in the National Living Wage and (c) the (i) consumer price index and (ii) other measures of inflation when estimating that there would be £500 million of additional funding in the 2025-26 and 2026-27 financial years.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The last economic data available at the time funding rates are set will be used to determine the proportions allocated in the 2025/6 and 2026/7 financial years.
The department estimates the changing costs to providers by using the annual results of the Survey of Childcare and Early Years Providers and the department’s cost pressures model, which also takes account of the different ages of children, as both reported staff-child ratios and the relative proportion of entitlement hours delivered by different provider types vary by child age. Separate calculations are therefore performed in respect of the different entitlements.