Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what additional funding has been made available to further education colleges since their reclassification as public sector organisations in November 2022.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department is investing an additional £185 million in the 2023/24 financial year and £285 million in the 2024/25 financial year to drive forward skills delivery in the further education sector. This funding is to help colleges and other providers to address their key priorities, particularly tackling recruitment and retention issues in high-value subject areas that are critical to the economy.
The above investment is in addition to the £125 million of funding made available in the 2023/24 financial year to boost the national 16 to 19 funding rate and subject-specific funding.
In the 2023/24 academic year, the department is applying a 2.2% increase to the final earnings for all adult education budget (AEB) formula-funded provision, excluding associated learner and learning support. In addition, the department is applying a 20% boost on top of earnings for all AEB formula-funded provision in six sector subject areas, including: Engineering, Manufacturing Technologies, Transport Operations and Maintenance, Building and Construction, ICT for Practitioners, and Mathematics and Statistics.
The department will make an initial downpayment over the next two years ahead of introducing the Advanced British Standard, with funding benefiting further education as follows:
- An additional investment of around £150 million each year to support those who do not pass mathematics and English GCSE at 16 to gain these qualifications. This will particularly benefit further education colleges, who play a vital role in helping close the attainment gap by 19.
- An increase in funding to colleges and schools so they can deliver maths to more students aged over 16, increasing the Core Maths and Advanced Maths Premium and investing in a digital platform for tutoring in Core Maths. In total this is £60 million of additional funding for maths education over the next two years of which further education institutions will potentially be able to benefit from the Core Maths Premium and Advanced Maths Premium.
- To improve the recruitment and retention of teachers of key shortage subjects around £100 million will be invested each year to double the rates of the Levelling Up Premium and expand it to cover all further education colleges. All teachers who are in the first five years of their career, teaching shortage subjects and working in disadvantaged schools and all further education colleges, will be paid up to £6,000 per year tax-free.
Since reclassification, £884 million of capital funding has been confirmed for further education colleges and designated institutions to fund condition improvement, expansion and the provision of specialist equipment and facilities. Some capital programmes have wider eligibility to also include sixth form colleges and other statutory sixth form providers.
The department has also opened the college capital loans scheme in April to enable capital projects reliant on commercial borrowing to proceed as planned.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the outcome of the rebuilding survey at Rawlins Academy in Loughborough.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Rawlins Academy is part of the School Rebuilding Programme which will transform buildings at 500 schools and sixth-form colleges over the next decade. It will rebuild or refurbish poor condition buildings, providing modern designs, with new buildings being net zero carbon in operation.
The department’s surveys at Rawlin’s Academy have recently started and are due to complete in the New Year. The department will share the outcome of these surveys with the school shortly.
Asked by: Baroness Garden of Frognal (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support students studying a classroom-based electrical technical diploma to transition into the workforce.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Further education outcomes are published annually and include information on the employment and further learning destinations of adult learners in the academic year after achieving their learning aim. The outcomes are available to view online at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/further-education-outcome-based-success-measures. Earnings outcomes are also tracked in each of the five academic years after achievement of the learning aim. Users can break down the data to view the outcomes for learners achieving specific qualifications. The most recent published data relates to adult learners who achieved their qualification in the 2020/21 academic year and their destinations in the following academic year (2021/22).
For example, the following table shows the sort of learner outcome measures that can be found in the publication. The outcomes relate to the year after achievement of the qualification. Full methodology is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/methodology/further-education-outcomes.
Qualification title | Sustained employment and/or learning | Sustained employment | Sustained learning | Median earnings |
Advanced Technical Diploma in Electrical Installation | 78% | 75% | 11% | c |
Diploma in Electrical Installation | 90% | 77% | 56% | £17,730 |
Diploma in Electrical Installations (Buildings and Structures) | 89% | 79% | 49% | £21,460 |
Advanced Diploma in Electrical Installation | 86% | 85% | 10% | c |
Diploma in Electrical Installation (Engineering) | 93% | 83% | 60% | z |
Diploma in Electrical/Electronic Engineering | 83% | 75% | 58% | z |
Intermediate Diploma in Electrical Installation | 93% | 85% | 66% | z |
c denotes where a figure has been suppressed for confidentiality reasons and z denotes where data is unavailable.
The department expects further education providers to ensure students are well informed about the world of work and their options for employment, and to tailor careers activities to the needs of their students. Providers should deliver support and advice on transitional pathways into further/higher education, training or into employment. These expectations are underpinned by funding agreements that require further education colleges and sixth form colleges to secure access to independent careers guidance for all students up to the age of 18 and to 19- to- 24-year-olds with an Education, Health and Care Plan. Further education colleges also have a statutory duty under the Education Act 1997 to provide persons attending the college with access to both guidance materials and reference materials relating to careers education and career opportunities.
Asked by: Baroness Garden of Frognal (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to measure the learner outcomes and career progression of students completing electrical technical diplomas.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Further education outcomes are published annually and include information on the employment and further learning destinations of adult learners in the academic year after achieving their learning aim. The outcomes are available to view online at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/further-education-outcome-based-success-measures. Earnings outcomes are also tracked in each of the five academic years after achievement of the learning aim. Users can break down the data to view the outcomes for learners achieving specific qualifications. The most recent published data relates to adult learners who achieved their qualification in the 2020/21 academic year and their destinations in the following academic year (2021/22).
For example, the following table shows the sort of learner outcome measures that can be found in the publication. The outcomes relate to the year after achievement of the qualification. Full methodology is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/methodology/further-education-outcomes.
Qualification title | Sustained employment and/or learning | Sustained employment | Sustained learning | Median earnings |
Advanced Technical Diploma in Electrical Installation | 78% | 75% | 11% | c |
Diploma in Electrical Installation | 90% | 77% | 56% | £17,730 |
Diploma in Electrical Installations (Buildings and Structures) | 89% | 79% | 49% | £21,460 |
Advanced Diploma in Electrical Installation | 86% | 85% | 10% | c |
Diploma in Electrical Installation (Engineering) | 93% | 83% | 60% | z |
Diploma in Electrical/Electronic Engineering | 83% | 75% | 58% | z |
Intermediate Diploma in Electrical Installation | 93% | 85% | 66% | z |
c denotes where a figure has been suppressed for confidentiality reasons and z denotes where data is unavailable.
The department expects further education providers to ensure students are well informed about the world of work and their options for employment, and to tailor careers activities to the needs of their students. Providers should deliver support and advice on transitional pathways into further/higher education, training or into employment. These expectations are underpinned by funding agreements that require further education colleges and sixth form colleges to secure access to independent careers guidance for all students up to the age of 18 and to 19- to- 24-year-olds with an Education, Health and Care Plan. Further education colleges also have a statutory duty under the Education Act 1997 to provide persons attending the college with access to both guidance materials and reference materials relating to careers education and career opportunities.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding has been allocated by the Education and Skills Funding Agency in Wellingborough constituency in each year since 2017.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department is able to provide the schools national funding formula (NFF) allocations for schools in the Wellingborough constituency from the 2020/21 financial year. This covers mainstream schools funding only. The schools NFF determines school revenue funding for all mainstream schools in England, although schools’ actual allocations are based on local authorities’ local funding formulae. Constituency figures are based on an aggregate of schools’ NFF allocations.
Funding through the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), which includes revenue funding for schools, high needs, early years, and central school services since 2018/19, is available at local authority level only. Wellingborough was within Northamptonshire for the 2017/18 to 2020/21 financial years. On 1 April 2021, Northamptonshire split into two unitary authorities (North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire) with Wellingborough residing within North Northamptonshire.
Pupil Premium provides additional funding to support disadvantaged pupils. Allocations are calculated based on the number of eligible pupils in each school. Wellingborough’s NFF and Pupil Premium allocations, alongside Northamptonshire’s DSG allocations, can be found in the attached tables.
In addition to this core revenue funding, schools receive funding through a number of separate streams, including: Universal Infant Free School Meals funding; PE and sport premium funding; and the recovery premium and the National Tutoring Programme to support education recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic. The department also has a capital budget, which funds a range of programmes for schools such as the Schools Rebuilding Programme. Information about this programme is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-rebuilding-programme.
The department also provides funding via the 16 to 19 funding formula for:
This is allocated via a variety of institutions including sixth-form and FE colleges, school and academy sixth-forms, independent learning providers, local authorities, special post-16 institutions (SPIs) and some higher education institutions.
The funding amounts allocated to institutions between 2017/18 and 2023/24 is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/16-to-19-education-funding-allocations#published-allocations.
The department is also continuing to invest in education and skills training for adults through the Adult Education Budget (AEB). This funding totalled £1.34 billion in 2022/23.
The AEB fully funds or co-funds skills provision for eligible adults aged nineteen and above from pre-entry to Level 3, to help them gain the skills they need for work, an apprenticeship or further learning.
AEB allocations to training providers are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/funding-allocations-to-training-providers-2022-to-2023.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an estimate of the cost to Sheffield City Council of the removal of RAAC at Abbey Lane Primary.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
It is the responsibility of those who run schools – academy trusts, local authorities and voluntary-aided school bodies – to manage the safety and maintenance of their schools and to alert the department if there is a serious concern with a building. It has always been the case that where the department is made aware a building may pose an immediate risk, immediate action is taken.
The department will spend what it takes to keep pupils safe. Ministers and officials have regular discussions with colleagues from HM Treasury on a range of issues. The department will fund emergency mitigation work needed to make buildings safe, including installing alternative classroom space where necessary.
The department will fund refurbishment projects, or rebuilding projects where these are needed, to remove RAAC from the school estate. Schools and colleges will either be offered capital grants, or rebuilding projects through the School Rebuilding Programme. The department will set out further details for affected schools and colleges in due course.
The department recognises that some responsible bodies will already have carried out emergency mitigation works, where RAAC was deemed ‘critical,’ based on the advice of the department’s surveys or from other qualified professionals, and in most cases we will reimburse these costs.
Prior to 31 August, the point at which the department’s advice on the risks of RAAC changed, some responsible bodies or schools may also have chosen to take action on RAAC in their buildings where it was not deemed critical, and others may have chosen to go further and removed RAAC entirely. In these cases, as with any other capital works, the responsible bodies will have taken decisions as part of their own estate strategy, based on their assessment of any professional advice they had received and the affordability of the project.
This work would typically have been funded through annual capital funding provided by the department to the sector, or from other sources of funding, such as a responsible body’s reserves. In these cases, the department is not providing additional funding to the funding already provided to responsible bodies to pay for this and other maintenance work.
The department will carefully consider claims submitted by responsible bodies for essential RAAC related works, taking into account the particular circumstances of each case, to determine how the approach above should apply. This includes any claims submitted in relation to Abbey Lane Primary School, and the department will work with the school to understand the scope of the work that has been carried out and its cost.
In addition to the department’s support on RAAC, it has committed £1.8 billion of capital funding for the financial year 2023/24 to improve the condition of school buildings, as part of over £15 billion allocated since 2015. In 2023/24, Sheffield local authority received a school condition allocation of £3,592,655 for improving the condition of its school buildings. Alongside this, the department will transform poor condition buildings at 500 schools and sixth form colleges over the coming decade through the School Rebuilding Programme.
The department will always put the safety and wellbeing of children and staff in schools and colleges at the heart of its policy decisions. The government has taken more proactive action to identify and mitigate RAAC in education settings than the devolved administrations in the UK, or indeed, governments overseas.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has received representations from Sheffield City Council on funding for the removal of RAAC from schools.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
It is the responsibility of those who run schools – academy trusts, local authorities and voluntary-aided school bodies – to manage the safety and maintenance of their schools and to alert the department if there is a serious concern with a building. It has always been the case that where the department is made aware a building may pose an immediate risk, immediate action is taken.
The department will spend what it takes to keep pupils safe. Ministers and officials have regular discussions with colleagues from HM Treasury on a range of issues. The department will fund emergency mitigation work needed to make buildings safe, including installing alternative classroom space where necessary.
The department will fund refurbishment projects, or rebuilding projects where these are needed, to remove RAAC from the school estate. Schools and colleges will either be offered capital grants, or rebuilding projects through the School Rebuilding Programme. The department will set out further details for affected schools and colleges in due course.
The department recognises that some responsible bodies will already have carried out emergency mitigation works, where RAAC was deemed ‘critical,’ based on the advice of the department’s surveys or from other qualified professionals, and in most cases we will reimburse these costs.
Prior to 31 August, the point at which the department’s advice on the risks of RAAC changed, some responsible bodies or schools may also have chosen to take action on RAAC in their buildings where it was not deemed critical, and others may have chosen to go further and removed RAAC entirely. In these cases, as with any other capital works, the responsible bodies will have taken decisions as part of their own estate strategy, based on their assessment of any professional advice they had received and the affordability of the project.
This work would typically have been funded through annual capital funding provided by the department to the sector, or from other sources of funding, such as a responsible body’s reserves. In these cases, the department is not providing additional funding to the funding already provided to responsible bodies to pay for this and other maintenance work.
The department will carefully consider claims submitted by responsible bodies for essential RAAC related works, taking into account the particular circumstances of each case, to determine how the approach above should apply. This includes any claims submitted in relation to Abbey Lane Primary School, and the department will work with the school to understand the scope of the work that has been carried out and its cost.
In addition to the department’s support on RAAC, it has committed £1.8 billion of capital funding for the financial year 2023/24 to improve the condition of school buildings, as part of over £15 billion allocated since 2015. In 2023/24, Sheffield local authority received a school condition allocation of £3,592,655 for improving the condition of its school buildings. Alongside this, the department will transform poor condition buildings at 500 schools and sixth form colleges over the coming decade through the School Rebuilding Programme.
The department will always put the safety and wellbeing of children and staff in schools and colleges at the heart of its policy decisions. The government has taken more proactive action to identify and mitigate RAAC in education settings than the devolved administrations in the UK, or indeed, governments overseas.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will reimburse Sheffield City Council for the cost of RAAC removal at Abbey Lane Primary.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
It is the responsibility of those who run schools – academy trusts, local authorities and voluntary-aided school bodies – to manage the safety and maintenance of their schools and to alert the department if there is a serious concern with a building. It has always been the case that where the department is made aware a building may pose an immediate risk, immediate action is taken.
The department will spend what it takes to keep pupils safe. Ministers and officials have regular discussions with colleagues from HM Treasury on a range of issues. The department will fund emergency mitigation work needed to make buildings safe, including installing alternative classroom space where necessary.
The department will fund refurbishment projects, or rebuilding projects where these are needed, to remove RAAC from the school estate. Schools and colleges will either be offered capital grants, or rebuilding projects through the School Rebuilding Programme. The department will set out further details for affected schools and colleges in due course.
The department recognises that some responsible bodies will already have carried out emergency mitigation works, where RAAC was deemed ‘critical,’ based on the advice of the department’s surveys or from other qualified professionals, and in most cases we will reimburse these costs.
Prior to 31 August, the point at which the department’s advice on the risks of RAAC changed, some responsible bodies or schools may also have chosen to take action on RAAC in their buildings where it was not deemed critical, and others may have chosen to go further and removed RAAC entirely. In these cases, as with any other capital works, the responsible bodies will have taken decisions as part of their own estate strategy, based on their assessment of any professional advice they had received and the affordability of the project.
This work would typically have been funded through annual capital funding provided by the department to the sector, or from other sources of funding, such as a responsible body’s reserves. In these cases, the department is not providing additional funding to the funding already provided to responsible bodies to pay for this and other maintenance work.
The department will carefully consider claims submitted by responsible bodies for essential RAAC related works, taking into account the particular circumstances of each case, to determine how the approach above should apply. This includes any claims submitted in relation to Abbey Lane Primary School, and the department will work with the school to understand the scope of the work that has been carried out and its cost.
In addition to the department’s support on RAAC, it has committed £1.8 billion of capital funding for the financial year 2023/24 to improve the condition of school buildings, as part of over £15 billion allocated since 2015. In 2023/24, Sheffield local authority received a school condition allocation of £3,592,655 for improving the condition of its school buildings. Alongside this, the department will transform poor condition buildings at 500 schools and sixth form colleges over the coming decade through the School Rebuilding Programme.
The department will always put the safety and wellbeing of children and staff in schools and colleges at the heart of its policy decisions. The government has taken more proactive action to identify and mitigate RAAC in education settings than the devolved administrations in the UK, or indeed, governments overseas.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the costs of the removal of RAAC in schools will be reimbursed.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
It is the responsibility of those who run schools – academy trusts, local authorities and voluntary-aided school bodies – to manage the safety and maintenance of their schools and to alert the department if there is a serious concern with a building. It has always been the case that where the department is made aware a building may pose an immediate risk, immediate action is taken.
The department will spend what it takes to keep pupils safe. Ministers and officials have regular discussions with colleagues from HM Treasury on a range of issues. The department will fund emergency mitigation work needed to make buildings safe, including installing alternative classroom space where necessary.
The department will fund refurbishment projects, or rebuilding projects where these are needed, to remove RAAC from the school estate. Schools and colleges will either be offered capital grants, or rebuilding projects through the School Rebuilding Programme. The department will set out further details for affected schools and colleges in due course.
The department recognises that some responsible bodies will already have carried out emergency mitigation works, where RAAC was deemed ‘critical,’ based on the advice of the department’s surveys or from other qualified professionals, and in most cases we will reimburse these costs.
Prior to 31 August, the point at which the department’s advice on the risks of RAAC changed, some responsible bodies or schools may also have chosen to take action on RAAC in their buildings where it was not deemed critical, and others may have chosen to go further and removed RAAC entirely. In these cases, as with any other capital works, the responsible bodies will have taken decisions as part of their own estate strategy, based on their assessment of any professional advice they had received and the affordability of the project.
This work would typically have been funded through annual capital funding provided by the department to the sector, or from other sources of funding, such as a responsible body’s reserves. In these cases, the department is not providing additional funding to the funding already provided to responsible bodies to pay for this and other maintenance work.
The department will carefully consider claims submitted by responsible bodies for essential RAAC related works, taking into account the particular circumstances of each case, to determine how the approach above should apply. This includes any claims submitted in relation to Abbey Lane Primary School, and the department will work with the school to understand the scope of the work that has been carried out and its cost.
In addition to the department’s support on RAAC, it has committed £1.8 billion of capital funding for the financial year 2023/24 to improve the condition of school buildings, as part of over £15 billion allocated since 2015. In 2023/24, Sheffield local authority received a school condition allocation of £3,592,655 for improving the condition of its school buildings. Alongside this, the department will transform poor condition buildings at 500 schools and sixth form colleges over the coming decade through the School Rebuilding Programme.
The department will always put the safety and wellbeing of children and staff in schools and colleges at the heart of its policy decisions. The government has taken more proactive action to identify and mitigate RAAC in education settings than the devolved administrations in the UK, or indeed, governments overseas.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what representations her Department has received on the costs of RAAC removal at Abbey Lane Primary in Sheffield.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
It is the responsibility of those who run schools – academy trusts, local authorities and voluntary-aided school bodies – to manage the safety and maintenance of their schools and to alert the department if there is a serious concern with a building. It has always been the case that where the department is made aware a building may pose an immediate risk, immediate action is taken.
The department will spend what it takes to keep pupils safe. Ministers and officials have regular discussions with colleagues from HM Treasury on a range of issues. The department will fund emergency mitigation work needed to make buildings safe, including installing alternative classroom space where necessary.
The department will fund refurbishment projects, or rebuilding projects where these are needed, to remove RAAC from the school estate. Schools and colleges will either be offered capital grants, or rebuilding projects through the School Rebuilding Programme. The department will set out further details for affected schools and colleges in due course.
The department recognises that some responsible bodies will already have carried out emergency mitigation works, where RAAC was deemed ‘critical,’ based on the advice of the department’s surveys or from other qualified professionals, and in most cases we will reimburse these costs.
Prior to 31 August, the point at which the department’s advice on the risks of RAAC changed, some responsible bodies or schools may also have chosen to take action on RAAC in their buildings where it was not deemed critical, and others may have chosen to go further and removed RAAC entirely. In these cases, as with any other capital works, the responsible bodies will have taken decisions as part of their own estate strategy, based on their assessment of any professional advice they had received and the affordability of the project.
This work would typically have been funded through annual capital funding provided by the department to the sector, or from other sources of funding, such as a responsible body’s reserves. In these cases, the department is not providing additional funding to the funding already provided to responsible bodies to pay for this and other maintenance work.
The department will carefully consider claims submitted by responsible bodies for essential RAAC related works, taking into account the particular circumstances of each case, to determine how the approach above should apply. This includes any claims submitted in relation to Abbey Lane Primary School, and the department will work with the school to understand the scope of the work that has been carried out and its cost.
In addition to the department’s support on RAAC, it has committed £1.8 billion of capital funding for the financial year 2023/24 to improve the condition of school buildings, as part of over £15 billion allocated since 2015. In 2023/24, Sheffield local authority received a school condition allocation of £3,592,655 for improving the condition of its school buildings. Alongside this, the department will transform poor condition buildings at 500 schools and sixth form colleges over the coming decade through the School Rebuilding Programme.
The department will always put the safety and wellbeing of children and staff in schools and colleges at the heart of its policy decisions. The government has taken more proactive action to identify and mitigate RAAC in education settings than the devolved administrations in the UK, or indeed, governments overseas.