Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to tackle antisemitism in schools.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
It is deeply concerning to see the huge rise in antisemitism following Hamas’s terrorist attacks in Israel on 7 October 2023. To see this form of hatred also take place in education is unacceptable.
The government took immediate action in October 2023. First, to increase security measures at Jewish schools, colleges and nurseries - we announced £3 million of additional funding to the Community Security Trust.
The Secretary of State also wrote to all schools and colleges on 17 October 2023, urging them to support Jewish students and highlighting our political impartiality guidance and advice on the Prevent programme.
To support schools and colleges we published learning resources on our Educate Against Hate website.
We are also providing over £3 million of funding, between 10 August 2021 and 31 March 2024, to five anti-bullying organisations, which includes projects to tackle hate-related bullying on the basis of race and faith.
The department has networks of ‘Prevent’ practitioners who provide training to school staff on radicalisation and empower teachers to challenge extremism in the classroom.
We continue to monitor the situation carefully. Ministers have conducted several visits recently to listen to the experience of Jewish communities, including meeting with Dr David Landau who is Chair of Governors Menorah High School, one of the settings that temporarily closed in October over safety concerns.
We are engaging regularly with faith groups and school leadership organisations to understand their concerns and use it to shape our response. This includes the Board of Jewish Deputies and Chinuch UK.
In the Autumn Statement, on 22 November 2023, the government announced a further £7 million of funding over the next three years to help tackle antisemitism. This will help support schools, colleges, and universities to understand, recognise and deal with antisemitism effectively. We are preparing to issue an invitation for interested organisations to tender in the coming weeks.
If anyone feels that specific issues in education are not being addressed, they can raise them directly to the department through the Counter Extremism helpline or our “Report Extremism” online form. We then engage with the police and local authorities to consider what action is needed.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment he has made of trends in the level of hate crime targeted at LGBT+ people in (a) Wales and (b) Newport West constituency.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
The Government is pleased to see the overall reduction in police-recorded hate crime across forces in England and Wales in the year ending March 2023, including a 6% reduction in sexual orientation hate crimes. Whilst an 11% increase in transgender hate crime was seen, and this may partly be due to a genuine rise, the biggest driver is likely to be general improvements in police recording along with increased victim willingness to come forward. We are clear that any instance is one too many and we remain committed to tackling these appalling offences. We are supporting the police by providing them with the resources they need.
Part of this necessitates police recruitment and training – there are over 149,000 officers in England and Wales, which is higher than the previous peak before the Police Uplift Programme, in March 2010. Wales as a whole now has 8,108 officers (headcount as at 30 September 2023). Funding for Wales will be up to £936.4m in 2024/25, an increase of up to £56m when compared to 2023/24.
Gwent specifically now has 1,527 officers (headcount as at 30 September 2023). Funding for Gwent will be £179.8 million in 2024/25, an increase of up to £10.7 million when compared to 2023/24. The Government continues to fund True Vision, an online hate crime reporting portal, designed so that victims of all forms of hate crime do not have to visit a police station to report. We also fund the National Online Hate Crime Hub, a central capability designed to provide expert advice to support individual local police forces in dealing with online hate crime.
The Government is providing over £3m of funding, between 10 August 2021 and 31 March 2024, to five anti-bullying organisations to support schools to tackle bullying. This includes projects targeting hate-related bullying and homophobic, biphobic and transphobic based bullying.
Asked by: Keir Mather (Labour - Selby and Ainsty)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps to improve the quality of training for service providers on (a) Tourette's syndrome and (b) other tic disorders.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including Tourette’s syndrome, although it is not usual practice to ring-fence funds for particular topics or conditions. The NIHR has funded, or supported studies into, the causes of and treatments for Tourette’s syndrome, including a study on deep brain stimulation in people with the condition and a mixed-methods study to co-design a service model for children and young people with tic disorders.
Individual employers are responsible for ensuring that staff are trained, competent and have the necessary skills to safely and effectively treat patients in their care, including those with Tourette’s syndrome and other neurological disorders.
NHS England’s e-learning for Healthcare has produced modular online learning resources in relation to Tourette’s and other tic disorders, within its neurodevelopmental disorder and healthy schools programme domains, which are freely accessible to all, including service providers.
The Department has no specific plans to increase the number of specialist practitioners researching and treating Tourette’s Syndrome. The majority of services for people with Tourette’s syndrome are commissioned locally by integrated care boards, which are best placed to plan the provision of services subject to local prioritisation and need. In June 2023, NHS England published the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP), which sets out the steps the National Health Service and its partners need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years. The LTWP is a high-level plan to support the NHS workforce as a whole, and is designed to identify the right supply of staff across all clinical pathways and specialisms rather than workforce plans for specific services.
Asked by: Keir Mather (Labour - Selby and Ainsty)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps to increase funding for (a) research into the causes of and (b) treatments for Tourette’s syndrome.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including Tourette’s syndrome, although it is not usual practice to ring-fence funds for particular topics or conditions. The NIHR has funded, or supported studies into, the causes of and treatments for Tourette’s syndrome, including a study on deep brain stimulation in people with the condition and a mixed-methods study to co-design a service model for children and young people with tic disorders.
Individual employers are responsible for ensuring that staff are trained, competent and have the necessary skills to safely and effectively treat patients in their care, including those with Tourette’s syndrome and other neurological disorders.
NHS England’s e-learning for Healthcare has produced modular online learning resources in relation to Tourette’s and other tic disorders, within its neurodevelopmental disorder and healthy schools programme domains, which are freely accessible to all, including service providers.
The Department has no specific plans to increase the number of specialist practitioners researching and treating Tourette’s Syndrome. The majority of services for people with Tourette’s syndrome are commissioned locally by integrated care boards, which are best placed to plan the provision of services subject to local prioritisation and need. In June 2023, NHS England published the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP), which sets out the steps the National Health Service and its partners need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years. The LTWP is a high-level plan to support the NHS workforce as a whole, and is designed to identify the right supply of staff across all clinical pathways and specialisms rather than workforce plans for specific services.
Asked by: Keir Mather (Labour - Selby and Ainsty)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps to increase the number of specialist practitioners (a) researching and (b) treating Tourette's syndrome in (i) North Yorkshire and (ii) the north of England.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including Tourette’s syndrome, although it is not usual practice to ring-fence funds for particular topics or conditions. The NIHR has funded, or supported studies into, the causes of and treatments for Tourette’s syndrome, including a study on deep brain stimulation in people with the condition and a mixed-methods study to co-design a service model for children and young people with tic disorders.
Individual employers are responsible for ensuring that staff are trained, competent and have the necessary skills to safely and effectively treat patients in their care, including those with Tourette’s syndrome and other neurological disorders.
NHS England’s e-learning for Healthcare has produced modular online learning resources in relation to Tourette’s and other tic disorders, within its neurodevelopmental disorder and healthy schools programme domains, which are freely accessible to all, including service providers.
The Department has no specific plans to increase the number of specialist practitioners researching and treating Tourette’s Syndrome. The majority of services for people with Tourette’s syndrome are commissioned locally by integrated care boards, which are best placed to plan the provision of services subject to local prioritisation and need. In June 2023, NHS England published the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP), which sets out the steps the National Health Service and its partners need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years. The LTWP is a high-level plan to support the NHS workforce as a whole, and is designed to identify the right supply of staff across all clinical pathways and specialisms rather than workforce plans for specific services.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to tackle hate crime against LGBT+ people (a) nationally and (b) in Hull West and Hessle.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
There has been an overall reduction in police-recorded hate crime in the year ending March 2023, including a 6% reduction in sexual orientation hate crimes. Whilst an 11% increase in transgender hate crime was seen, and this may partly be due to a genuine rise, the biggest driver is likely to be general improvements in police recording along with increased victim willingness to come forward.
We are supporting the police by providing them with the resources they need. Part of this necessitates police recruitment and training – that is why we have the highest number of police officers on record in England and Wales. Humberside now has 2,294 officers (headcount as at 31 March 2023), the highest number ever. Funding for Humberside will be £252.6 million in 2024/25, an increase of up to £15.5 million when compared to 2023/24.
The Home Office continues to fund True Vision, an online hate crime reporting portal, designed so that victims of all forms of hate crime do not have to visit a police station to report. We also fund the National Online Hate Crime Hub, a central capability designed to provide expert advice to support individual local police forces in dealing with online hate crime.
The Government is providing over £3m of funding, between 10 August 2021 and 31 March 2024, to five anti-bullying organisations to support schools to tackle bullying. This includes projects targeting hate-related bullying and homophobic, biphobic and transphobic based bullying.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to (a) improve access to and (b) reduce waiting times for counselling for children and young people.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We are investing at least an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24, which will allow an extra 345,000 more children and young people to get the National Health Service-funded mental health support they need.
There are now almost 400 mental health support teams in place in schools and colleges across England so that more young people get mental health support. Mental health support teams now cover over three million children or around 35% of pupils in schools and colleges. We are aiming to increase this coverage to 50% by April 2025.
There are currently approximately 65 locally funded early support hubs in England. These hubs are open to those aged between 11 and 25 years old and, importantly, they are for anyone who may not meet the threshold to receive NHS support. This means children and young people experiencing feelings of anxiety or stress will have a physical space to go to in their community when their problems first emerge without the need for a referral.
On 25 October 2023, we announced £4.92 million of new funding to deliver and evaluate innovative mental health and wellbeing support for young people at 10 hub sites across England until the end of 2024/25. Bids are currently being considered and the ten successful hubs will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Somerton and Frome)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of education, health and care plans include nutritional information; and what (a) funding and (b) other support she has made available to local authorities to support SEND children with nutritional needs.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department does not collect data on how many Education, Health and Care plans include nutritional information.
High needs funding to support the education of children with complex Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) will total to £10.5 billion in 2024/25 which is an increase of over 60% from 2019/20. The majority of this funding is allocated to local authorities: they, and the schools they fund, can use this funding to subsidise or meet the cost of school food, including for those children with SEND who have nutritional needs.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question
To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the House of Commons Commission, how often the House of Commons Commission reviews the terms and conditions of the travel subsidy setting out funding available for school trips to Parliament.
Answered by Charles Walker
The House Administration wants to enable schoolchildren across the UK to have the opportunity to visit Parliament. It has therefore been actively considering the impact of rising travel costs and revised constituency boundaries on the Education Travel Subsidy.
In June 2023, the Finance Committee considered and agreed proposals to increase the subsidy in light of rising travel costs. This was implemented in September 2023, but the Committee asked for additional increases to be considered. A further proposal was brought to the Finance Committee in November 2023 and the Commission in December 2023 to amend some elements of the subsidy and implement further increases. These were agreed and will be applied from April 2024. The changes are expected to increase visit numbers from outside the south-east.
The Commission noted in December 2023 that a deep dive review of the Education Travel Subsidy programme would take place in the third quarter of 2024/25 which would take account of constituency boundary changes.
The travel subsidy allows eligible state-funded schools to claim between 50 and 75 per cent of travel costs back, subject to maximum claim caps. Constituencies are set into three geographic based bands, A, B or C to determine eligibility. Further information is given on the Parliamentary website: Travel Subsidy - Parliament UK Education. Recent changes to subsidy level are given below.
Travel subsidy in 2022
Travel subsidy as of 1 September 2023
Travel subsidy changes for 1 April 2024 will be announced to Members in the coming weeks.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average funding allocation per pupil was in mainstream schools in (a) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire in the 2023-24 financial year; and what the projected funding allocation per pupil in such schools is for the 2024-25 financial year.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Through the schools national funding formula (NFF), the department calculates and publishes notional funding allocations for each mainstream school. These are aggregated up at local authority level and, following an update in pupil numbers, are used to calculate each local authority’s dedicated school grant (DSG) allocations. Each local authority then determines individual schools’ final funding allocations through their own local formula.
In 2023/24, through the DSG and Mainstream Schools Additional Grant (MSAG) combined, the average per-pupil funding for mainstream schools in Lincolnshire is £5,778. In 2024/25, through the DSG, the average per-pupil funding for Lincolnshire will be £5,904, a 2.2% increase from this current financial year. These are actual funding allocations.
In 2024/25, based on the notional NFF allocations, South Holland and The Deepings’ average per-pupil funding will be £5,874, which is a 1.9% increase from the £5,766 they attracted through the NFF and MSAG combined in 2023/24. However, final allocations for South Holland and The Deepings will depend on the local authority’s local formula.
The figures above do not include the additional funding the department is providing through the Teachers Pay Additional Grant, which is being provided on top of the DSG in both 2023/24 and 2024/25, or through other grants, such as the Pupil Premium.