Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to provide one-to-one and small group tuition in education settings following the conclusion of the National Tutoring Programme in August.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department acted swiftly in helping all children to recover from the impact of the pandemic and made available almost £5 billion for its ambitious multi-year programmes to support education recovery. These programmes were principally targeted at disadvantaged pupils, supporting the narrowing of the disadvantage gap to pre-pandemic levels as quickly as possible. Crucially, they were also designed to have a legacy beyond the multi-year period of exceptional and additional support.
Over £1 billion has been invested in tutoring over four years through the National Tutoring Programme (NTP). This has seen nearly 5 million tutoring courses commence since the programme started in November 2020, including over 2 million in each of the last two academic years. In the current academic year, 346,000 courses have started up to 5 October 2023.
The department anticipates that tutoring will continue to be a staple offer from schools, with schools using core budgets and pupil premium funding to provide targeted support for those children who will benefit.
Raising attainment for pupils is at the heart of this government’s agenda. The department knows that disadvantaged children have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic and are committed to narrowing the attainment gap.
The department is continuing to support pupils’ needs by investing an extra £2 billion into core schools funding both this year and next year, over and above what it had already announced at the 2021 Spending Review. The department has also announced an additional £525 million this year to support schools with the teachers’ pay award, with a further £900 million in 2024/25. This means that by next year, school funding will be more than £59.6 billion, which is the highest ever level in real terms per pupil.
Schools receive the pupil premium to enable them to provide extra support to improve disadvantaged pupils’ academic and personal achievements. Pupil premium funding will rise to over £2.9 billion in 2024/25, which is an increase of £80 million from 2023/24. This represents a 10% increase in per pupil rates from 2021/22 to 2024/25.
Additionally, the department is investing in 55 Education Investment Areas, where outcomes in literacy and numeracy are the poorest, including £86 million in trust capacity funding to help strong trusts to expand into areas most in need of improvement.
Furthermore, students in 16-19 education during the 2024/25 academic year will continue to receive the additional 40 learning hours that the department is funding to help them catch up on the vital teaching and learning they need to progress. It is estimated that the additional hours will support the recovery of approximately one month of lost learning per academic year.
Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has taken steps to implement recommendation 27 on page 260 of the Equality and Human Rights Commission's report entitled Equality and Human Rights Monitor, published in November 2023, on the under-performance of boys relative to girls in primary and secondary education.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Raising attainment for all pupils, no matter their gender or background is at the heart of this government’s agenda and the government is committed to providing a world-class education system for all.
The latest data shows that, while girls continue to outperform boys across most headline measures, the gender gap between boys and girls is narrowing.
At key stage 2 in 2022/23, the gender gap between boys and girls at the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics has decreased since 2022 and is the lowest it has been since 2016. Key stage 4 results show the gender gap has narrowed across all headline measures when comparing 2022/23 with both 2018/19 and 2021/22.
The Schools White Paper, published in March 2022, was clear about the direction of travel needed to improve attainment. It set out the department’s long-term vision for a school system that helps every child to fulfil their potential by ensuring that they receive the right support, in the right place, at the right time – founded on achieving world-class literacy and numeracy.
This is supported by significant investment in education with the overall core school budget totalling over £59.6 billion in 2024/25 which is the highest ever level in real terms per pupil. This will help schools in their vital work to close attainment gaps, and level up educational opportunities.
Alongside this, the department takes a range of steps to improve attainment and outcomes for all pupils, including improving the quality of teaching and curriculum resources, strengthening the school system, increasing attendance, and providing targeted support where needed.
The department is aware that disadvantaged pupils and those with additional needs are more likely to fall behind and need extra support to reach their full potential. This is why the department has provided additional funding to support disadvantaged pupils through the pupil premium, which will rise to over £2.9 billion in 2024/25, an increase of £80 million from 2023/24.
Programmes such as free school meals that support 2 million children, the Holiday Activities and Food programme, and support for up to 2,700 breakfast clubs also support disadvantaged pupils.
The department continues to collaborate with other government departments to address out-of-school factors that we know have a significant impact on attainment outcomes.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to close the attainment gap for disadvantaged pupils in (a) primary and (b) secondary state schools in the long-term.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Raising attainment for all pupils is at the heart of this government’s agenda. The disadvantage gap at key stage 2 (KS2), as measured by the disadvantage gap index, is stable compared to 2022 having slightly reduced from 3.23 in 2022 to 3.21 in 2023. The key stage 4 (KS4) disadvantage gap index has widened slightly compared to 2021/22, from 3.84 to 3.95.
Across all major departmental programmes and all phases of education, help to narrow these gaps is targeted towards pupils that need it most. The department is investing in 55 Education Investment Areas where outcomes in literacy and numeracy are the poorest, including £86 million in trust capacity funding to help strong trusts expand into areas most in need of improvement.
Regular school attendance is vital for children’s attainment, mental wellbeing and long term development. The department has a comprehensive strategy in place to improve attendance that includes stronger expectations of the system, an improved data tool, and the expansion of the attendance mentor and attendance hubs programmes. This is important as statistics show that pupils with higher attainment at KS2 and KS4 had lower levels of absence over the key stage compared to those with lower attainment.
The schools National Funding Formula (NFF) targets funding to schools that have the greatest numbers of pupils with additional needs. In 2024/25, the department is targeting over £4.4 billion (10.2%) of the NFF according to deprivation, and over £7.8 billion (17.8%) for additional needs overall. In 2024/25, schools with the highest levels of deprivation, on average, attract the largest per pupil funding increases.
As part of the department’s almost £5 billion multi-year recovery programme, the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) also addresses this gap and has delivered nearly five million tutoring courses since it began in November 2020, of which 345,606 courses were started by pupils from September to October 2023. The department listened to feedback from schools and as a result set the subsidy at 50% for 2023/24, which reduces the amount of money schools contribute towards tutoring, which may enable more tutoring to be delivered. Recovery programmes, such as the NTP and the recovery premium, are also focused on helping the most disadvantaged. The department has provided £1 billion to extend the recovery premium over the 2022/23 and 2023/24 academic years. This builds on £300 million delivered in 2021/22.
Pupil premium also provides extra support for these children. This funding will rise to over £2.9 billion in the 2024/25 financial year, an increase of £80 million from 2023/24. The most disadvantaged three and four year olds are also eligible for early years pupil premium funding, which is being extended to the most disadvantaged two year olds from April 2023 and to under twos from September 2023. Low-income families and children experiencing other forms of disadvantage can qualify for 15 hours free early education for two year olds, a year before all children become eligible for 15 hours at ages three and four.
The quality of teaching a pupil receives is the single most important, in-school factor for improving outcomes. That is why the department’s ambition, as set out in the 2022 Schools White Paper, is to build a system of world-class teacher training and professional development that delivers high-quality professional development at every stage of a teacher’s career. 52,939 early career teachers have now benefitted from provider-led training as part of Early Career Framework reforms which are designed to support teachers in their crucial first years in the profession. 65,416 professionals have benefitted from a fully funded National Professional Qualification (NPQ) based on the best available evidence for effective practice since NPQs were reformed in 2021. This represents a substantial increase in comparison to the 33,399 professionals who undertook a funded NPQ in the four years between 2017 and 2021.
Additionally, the Levelling Up Premium offers higher annual payments of up to £3,000 after tax to mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged secondary schools. For 2024/25 and 2025/26, the department will be doubling the rate of Levelling Up Premium to up to £6,000 after tax.
Asked by: Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent progress her Department has made on implementing the policies in the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan, CP 800, published on 31 March 2023.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Backed by over £10.5 billion in 2024/25, which is an increase in the high needs budget of 60% over five years, the department’s Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan will ensure children and young people across England with SEND or in AP get high-quality, early support wherever they live in the country.
The department has a clear plan to ensure children and young people enjoy their childhood and achieve good outcomes. The department is delivering on this plan. The department has completed the following:
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support London’s schools and local authorities with falling school rolls.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department recognises the challenge some schools face with falling rolls, particularly in London. London is attracting an additional £75.1 million of funding for schools in 2024/25 compared to 2023/24 through the schools Dedicated Schools Grant, which is an increase of 1.6% per pupil excluding growth funding. This takes the total funding for 2024/25 in London to over £7.4 billion, based on current pupil numbers.
In the 2024/25 financial year, the department is changing how ‘growth and falling rolls funding’ is allocated to local authorities, so that this is based not only on increases in pupil numbers, but also decreases. This methodology will ensure that local authorities in which schools are experiencing significant decreases in pupil numbers will attract additional funding to support those schools. The restriction that schools must be judged ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ in their last Ofsted inspection to be eligible for falling rolls funding has also been removed.
The department is also broadening the scope of growth funding to allow local authorities to use growth funding to meet the revenue costs of removing surplus places. Such funding could support local authorities to repurpose space to create Special Educational needs and Disability (SEND) units, resourced bases, or wraparound childcare provision in mainstream schools. This is activity which we know many local authorities are already undertaking.
More information is available in published guidance at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pre-16-schools-funding-local-authority-guidance-for-2024-to-2025/growth-and-falling-rolls-fund-guidance-2024-to-2025.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Ofsted Annual Report 2022/23, what plans her Department has to reduce the variation in the standards of teaching of religious education; and what assessment she has made of the potential merits of adding the subject to the national curriculum.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Religious Education (RE) is an important part of a school’s curriculum and can contribute to a young person’s personal, social and academic development. When taught well, the subject develops children’s knowledge of British values and traditions, helps them to better understand those of other countries, and refines pupils’ ability to construct well-informed, balanced and structured arguments. This is why it remains a compulsory subject in all state-funded schools in England for each pupil up to the age of 18.
The government read Ofsted’s 2023 report with interest. Whilst there is no specific allocation of funding for RE curriculum programmes, the department does provide support for RE teaching in a number of other ways, particularly in relation to teaching quality.
The department is offering a £10,000 bursary for RE trainee teachers that are starting initial teacher training courses in the 2024/25 academic year.
To support teachers when they are in post, and to ensure high standards and consistency of RE teaching, RE resources will be procured by Oak National Academy during the second tranche of its work. Oak will work closely with the sector and utilise sector experience when producing new materials for RE. This will ensure that high-quality lessons are available nationwide, benefitting both teachers and pupils, should schools opt to use them. Oak RE resources will be available for teaching from autumn 2024, with full packages expected to be available by autumn 2025.
The department also continues to offer eight-week subject knowledge enhancement (SKE) courses in the 2022/23 academic year for candidates who have the potential to become outstanding teachers but need to increase their subject knowledge. The eight week SKE course, available in RE, can be undertaken on a full time or part time basis but must be completed before qualified teacher status can be recommended and awarded. Eligible candidates could be entitled to a SKE bursary of £175 per week to support them financially whilst completing their SKE course.
More information on these courses is available here: www.gov.uk/guidance/subject-knowledge-enhancement-an-introduction.
The core national curriculum subjects of English, mathematics and science have received an estimated £290 million over the past five years. Allocated funding for English facilitates the English hubs programme, which is a school-to-school improvement programme that focusses on systematic synthetic phonics, early language and reading for pleasure. It also facilitates Poetry By Heart, which is a national poetry speaking competition for schools. The funding for mathematics supports the implementation of programmes that aim to improve the teaching of mathematics from age 4 to 18 and to increase participation in post-16 mathematics. Similarly for science, this funding supports programmes which aim to improve the subject expertise of teachers and improve workforce capacity and confidence for science teachers.
In the Schools White Paper, the department has committed not to make any changes to the curriculum for the remainder of this Parliament, in order to provide stability for schools and pupils following the pandemic.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her Department's policy is on the classification of religious education as a school subject; and what funding she has allocated to support the teaching of (a) religious education and (b) national curriculum core subjects in each of the last five years.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Religious Education (RE) is an important part of a school’s curriculum and can contribute to a young person’s personal, social and academic development. When taught well, the subject develops children’s knowledge of British values and traditions, helps them to better understand those of other countries, and refines pupils’ ability to construct well-informed, balanced and structured arguments. This is why it remains a compulsory subject in all state-funded schools in England for each pupil up to the age of 18.
The government read Ofsted’s 2023 report with interest. Whilst there is no specific allocation of funding for RE curriculum programmes, the department does provide support for RE teaching in a number of other ways, particularly in relation to teaching quality.
The department is offering a £10,000 bursary for RE trainee teachers that are starting initial teacher training courses in the 2024/25 academic year.
To support teachers when they are in post, and to ensure high standards and consistency of RE teaching, RE resources will be procured by Oak National Academy during the second tranche of its work. Oak will work closely with the sector and utilise sector experience when producing new materials for RE. This will ensure that high-quality lessons are available nationwide, benefitting both teachers and pupils, should schools opt to use them. Oak RE resources will be available for teaching from autumn 2024, with full packages expected to be available by autumn 2025.
The department also continues to offer eight-week subject knowledge enhancement (SKE) courses in the 2022/23 academic year for candidates who have the potential to become outstanding teachers but need to increase their subject knowledge. The eight week SKE course, available in RE, can be undertaken on a full time or part time basis but must be completed before qualified teacher status can be recommended and awarded. Eligible candidates could be entitled to a SKE bursary of £175 per week to support them financially whilst completing their SKE course.
More information on these courses is available here: www.gov.uk/guidance/subject-knowledge-enhancement-an-introduction.
The core national curriculum subjects of English, mathematics and science have received an estimated £290 million over the past five years. Allocated funding for English facilitates the English hubs programme, which is a school-to-school improvement programme that focusses on systematic synthetic phonics, early language and reading for pleasure. It also facilitates Poetry By Heart, which is a national poetry speaking competition for schools. The funding for mathematics supports the implementation of programmes that aim to improve the teaching of mathematics from age 4 to 18 and to increase participation in post-16 mathematics. Similarly for science, this funding supports programmes which aim to improve the subject expertise of teachers and improve workforce capacity and confidence for science teachers.
In the Schools White Paper, the department has committed not to make any changes to the curriculum for the remainder of this Parliament, in order to provide stability for schools and pupils following the pandemic.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the findings of The National Parent Survey, published by Parentkind on 4 December 2023.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The National Parent Survey highlights the importance of engaging parents in their children’s education. While it is for schools to decide how to engage parents based on their particular circumstances, the department has put in place a range of support for schools and families for the issues the survey identifies. This includes support for access and attainment for those from lower income backgrounds and support for mental health and wellbeing.
The government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living. The department is providing total support worth £104 billion over the 2022/23 to 2024/25 financial years to help households and individuals with the rising cost of living. This includes additional Cost of Living Payments totalling up to £900 in the 2023/24 financial year for over 8 million UK households on eligible means tested benefits, and an additional £1 billion to help with the cost of household essentials.
Further support is available through the Pupil Premium, to improve the educational outcomes of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. In line with the variety of approaches set by the department, this funding can be used to support high-quality teaching and to provide targeted academic support. It can also be used to tackle wider barriers to academic success, such as difficulties in attendance, behaviour, and social and emotional wellbeing. Pupil Premium funding will rise to over £2.9 billion in the 2024/25 financial year, an increase of £80 million from 2023/24.
The government is addressing specific cost issues such as school uniform. New statutory guidance on the cost of school uniforms came into force in September 2022, which requires schools in England to ensure that their uniforms are affordable and secures best value for money for parents.
The department is committed to ensuring schools are calm, safe and supportive learning environments which promote and support good mental health and wellbeing. To support this commitment, the department is offering all state schools funding to train a senior mental health lead, who can oversee an effective whole-school approach to mental health and wellbeing, which informs areas such as behaviour, tackling bullying and exam preparation. The department is also continuing to roll out Mental Health Support Teams, to increase access to early intervention support.
The department shares parents’ concerns about the time spent by children on electronic devices. New non-statutory guidance will aim to ensure that headteachers and members of staff have a clear mandate and practical advice to prohibit the use of mobile phones during the school day, which further supports the department’s aim for schools to be a calm, safe and supportive environment to learn and work.
As highlighted by the report, the experience children gain outside of their lessons is important to them fulfilling their potential as they progress from schools. The department is providing support to increase access to enriching extra-curricular activity. For example, the department is supporting cadets schemes in schools and funding an expansion in access to the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award in secondary schools, starting in more disadvantaged areas. Disadvantaged areas now rank amongst the highest performing in the country for careers provision and the department’s guidance is clear that schools should recognise the opportunity to improve social mobility by identifying any barriers to participation pupils may have and identify the support needed to maximise their life chances.
Asked by: Ashley Dalton (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of (a) the requirement for maintained nursery schools to have at least one teacher with qualified teacher status and (b) other Ofsted requirements on the levels of Government support required for maintained nursery schools.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government recognises that maintained nursery schools make a valuable contribution to improving the lives of some of our most disadvantaged children. They are high-quality providers: in August 2023, 62% of maintained nursery schools were judged to be outstanding by Ofsted and 35% were judged to be good. Like other early years providers, they are required to follow the early years foundation stage statutory framework.
As a result of being maintained schools, certain requirements are placed on maintained nursery schools, such as having to have at least one qualified teacher, a special educational needs coordinator and a head teacher. These are costs that other small early years providers do not face. In recognition of this, the government provides local authorities with supplementary funding for maintained nursery schools in their areas.
The department currently provides local authorities with around £70 million a year in supplementary funding for maintained nursery schools. For 2024/25, the department will increase this in line with the national average uplift to three and four year-old rates for the vast majority of local authorities. The department will also add additional funding for teachers’ pay and pensions into this supplementary funding.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to increase participation of young girls in competitive sports (a) at and (b) outside school.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is committed to supporting women and girls’ sport at every opportunity including pushing for greater participation across all sports, at every level. In our new Sport Strategy ‘Get Active’, we set an ambitious target of getting 1 million more active children and 1.25 million more active women by 2030.
We are determined to maximise the potential of women’s sport in the future so we can sustain that pipeline of talent and expand it. We are investing over £600 million in school sport across the next two academic years todrive up the quality of physical education and ensure girls have equal access to opportunities to play sport.
The School Games programme offers children the opportunity to take part in competitions in over 40 sports at local and regional level, including inclusive, modified versions of the sports. In the 2022/23 academic year, the country-wide network of 450 School Games Organisers provided over 2.2 million opportunities for children to take part. The introduction of new equality criteria to the School Games Mark encourages and recognises schools providing equal access to girls and boys.
Outside of school, we are investing over £300 million in grassroots football and multi-sport facilities across the UK by 2025 which will further support women and girls accessing sport. The new £30 million Lioness Futures fund will deliver approximately 30 new state of the art 3G pitches at sites supporting women’s and girls’ teams across England. Projects in England will need to have a clear women and girls plan to receive this funding and will be monitored regularly to ensure the objectives are met.