Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the British Computer Society report The experiences of black women in the information technology industry, published in October 2022, what recent steps her Department has taken to encourage individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds to pursue careers in the tech industry.
Answered by Paul Scully
We recognise that the Tech Sector, including the Information Technology industry, can only reach its true potential if it is fully representative of society. This Government is committed to this mission, which is why we have supported the Tech Talent Charter since 2016. They are leading the movement by gathering data and reporting on diversity statistics from 741 organisations across all sectors, fostering collaboration and innovation to create a more inclusive and diverse tech workforce. TTC’s annual diversity in tech report is a key resource that encourages businesses to hire diverse talent, as well as sharing the best D&I practices across the sector.
We recognise that digital skills are fundamental to ensuring everyone can make the most of a digital future. As the department that leads on digital skills, we are focusing on broadening and deepening the pool of talent. The Digital Skills Council convenes stakeholders from across the sector to deliver industry led action on driving the growth of the digital workforce, including widening the skills pipelines, and ensuring Tech roles are accessible for all. One of the council’s objectives is to promote mechanisms to provide increasingly diverse access to digital roles and digitally enabled roles.
The Office for AI has also set up the AI and Data Science Conversion Course programmes to provide a Masters degree in AI and Data Science. The first scholarships were announced in 2019, and earlier this year, the government announced a further 2,000 scholarships. These will support underrepresented groups from non-STEM backgrounds to develop new digital and AI skills, and secure employment in the UK’s cutting-edge sectors. To date, 57% of these scholarships have been awarded to those from an ethnic minority background, and 38% of these scholarships have been awarded to Black students. Emerging findings also indicate that the scholarships are driving increased diversity in the cohort on these conversion courses compared to traditional Masters’ provision in the sector. 76% of the scholarships were awarded to women, leading to a 32% increase of women on the courses, against comparable benchmarks.
DCMS also launched Cyber Explorers, which supports 11-14 year-olds, and looks to boost their understanding and interest in a cyber career. The programme has prioritised representation on the platform, including characters from a range of diverse backgrounds and careers. This has focused on amplifying reach in population areas with high ethnic minority densities and areas with multiple indices of deprivation. This is alongside our work to support the CyberFirst Girls Competition, which opened its latest intake last month.
With DCMS funding, Tech Nation developed its Libra growth programme in 2021.The programme offers targeted support to minority ethnic tech founders in their scaling journey. Tech Nation has also developed a publicly available Diversity and Inclusion Toolkit, which supports scaling companies in implementing diversity and inclusion strategies in order to make the tech sector as a whole more accessible for those from minority ethnic backgrounds.
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department has taken to train prison staff on the additional needs of people in prison on remand with disabilities, including for neurodiverse people.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
On 30 June 2022, the Government published our Action Plan in response to the Evidence Review on Neurodiversity in the Criminal Justice System, setting set out a number of steps we are taking to increase support for neurodivergent people encountering the criminal justice system (CJS), including those on remand.
The action plan includes a number of steps specifically focused on training staff:
we are on track to have a dedicated Neurodiversity Support Manager in every prison across England and Wales by March 2024. A key part of their role is to deliver awareness sessions to upskill staff, and to improve prisoners’ access to education, skills and work;
by the end of 2022, we will have developed and launched a National Neurodiversity Training Toolkit available for all prison and probation staff; and
HM Prison and Probation Service has commissioned the organisation Skills for Justice to develop an ‘Adult Health, Care and Wellbeing Core Capabilities Framework’ for frontline staff, to set out what skills, knowledge and behaviour are required to support offenders with health requirements, including neurodivergent need.
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department has taken to train prison staff on the additional needs of prisoners with disabilities, including for neurodiverse prisoners.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
On 30 June 2022, the Government published our Action Plan in response to the Evidence Review on Neurodiversity in the Criminal Justice System, setting set out a number of steps we are taking to increase support for neurodivergent people encountering the criminal justice system (CJS), including those on remand.
The action plan includes a number of steps specifically focused on training staff:
we are on track to have a dedicated Neurodiversity Support Manager in every prison across England and Wales by March 2024. A key part of their role is to deliver awareness sessions to upskill staff, and to improve prisoners’ access to education, skills and work;
by the end of 2022, we will have developed and launched a National Neurodiversity Training Toolkit available for all prison and probation staff; and
HM Prison and Probation Service has commissioned the organisation Skills for Justice to develop an ‘Adult Health, Care and Wellbeing Core Capabilities Framework’ for frontline staff, to set out what skills, knowledge and behaviour are required to support offenders with health requirements, including neurodivergent need.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support online courses that can lead to recognised qualifications.
Answered by Robert Halfon
A range of online provision leading to qualifications is available to learners.
The adult education budget (AEB) fully funds or co-funds skills provision for eligible adults aged 19 and above from pre-entry to level 3, to support them to gain the skills they need for work, an apprenticeship, or further learning. Providers decide upon the mode of delivery for AEB-funded courses to best meet learners’ needs. This can include online delivery.
The free courses for jobs offer gives eligible adults the chance to access high-value level 3 qualifications for free. This offer includes qualifications available to study online. Learners can contact their local college or provider for further information about online delivery.
Skills Bootcamps are free, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks, giving people the opportunity to build up sector-specific skills, with an offer of a job interview with an employer on completion. Many Skills Bootcamps are delivered online.
The department launched the Skills Toolkit in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is an online platform providing free digital and numeracy courses to help individuals build the skills that are most sought after by employers, and it can help individuals progress in work and boost their job prospects.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of mental health and wellbeing training requirements for qualified sports coaches.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government recognises the importance of welfare and mental wellbeing for people participating in sport at all levels. An inclusive and professional sport and physical activity workforce is key to supporting people to be active. We want people taking part in sport and physical activity to have the best possible experience, which means that the workforce must be recruited, developed and supported in the right way.
Sport England, our arm’s length body for grassroots sport in England, funds a number of projects which aim to address knowledge and skills gaps of coaches in areas such as mental health. In 2019 they launched an e-learning course developed alongside Mind, UK Coaching and 1st4Sport which aims to help coaches and sport and physical activity providers increase their knowledge of mental health including how to support and engage people experiencing mental health problems. In 2020 Sport England also launched a duty of care toolkit with UK Coaching to equip coaches with the knowledge and skills to provide better coaching experiences and better look after themselves.
In recent years UK Sport, DCMS's arm's length body for elite sport, and the English Institute for Sport also have launched a programme of mental health education to promote positive mental health amongst coaches and support staff and encourage them to develop self-care strategies.
We will continue to work with our arm’s length bodies, sports bodies, and sector partners to promote good coaching which benefits both participants and coaches.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will introduce a programme that (a) encourages and (b) trains families to provide mother and baby fostering placements.
Answered by Will Quince
Local authorities have a duty to ensure they have sufficient placements to meet the needs of the looked after children in their area, this includes parent and child foster placements.
The department continues to prioritise supporting local authorities and foster carers to provide stable and loving foster homes. The department is investing in helping local authorities provide additional foster care places, including trialling different ways to plan and commission placements and developing a social media toolkit to help local authorities with no and low-cost recruitment activity.
The Fostering Services (England) Regulation 2011, and the National Minimum Standards for Fostering Services, clearly set out the expectation that support and training is made available to foster carers to assist them in meeting the specific needs of the children they are caring for or are expected to care for. This would include ensuring that foster carers have the knowledge and skills required to support looked after children in a parent and child foster placement. The department also funds Fosterline and Fosterline Plus, an independent, confidential, and impartial service offering advice on fostering issues to any current and prospective foster carers.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to increase the number of mother and baby fostering placements.
Answered by Will Quince
Local authorities have a duty to ensure they have sufficient placements to meet the needs of the looked after children in their area, this includes parent and child foster placements.
The department continues to prioritise supporting local authorities and foster carers to provide stable and loving foster homes. The department is investing in helping local authorities provide additional foster care places, including trialling different ways to plan and commission placements and developing a social media toolkit to help local authorities with no and low-cost recruitment activity.
The Fostering Services (England) Regulation 2011, and the National Minimum Standards for Fostering Services, clearly set out the expectation that support and training is made available to foster carers to assist them in meeting the specific needs of the children they are caring for or are expected to care for. This would include ensuring that foster carers have the knowledge and skills required to support looked after children in a parent and child foster placement. The department also funds Fosterline and Fosterline Plus, an independent, confidential, and impartial service offering advice on fostering issues to any current and prospective foster carers.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to ensure there are specialist staff with trauma training in job centres.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Training and guidance is provided for all staff working with different vulnerable groups. This includes developing the skills they need to support and communicate with a diverse range of customers to provide a tailored service that recognises those with complex needs.
Jobcentre staff have access to information on services and support available in their local area for vulnerable claimants and will signpost claimants to national and local organisations who provide specialist support. This has included Trauma Informed Approach training that many staff have now completed. Nationally DWP works with J9, a domestic abuse awareness national initiative.
Work Coaches will tailor conditionality, setting requirements based on what is reasonable for the individual’s circumstances. A claimant’s work search and availability requirements can be switched off for an agreed period of time, and other work-related requirements can be lifted where appropriate. This includes where the claimant has suffered domestic violence and abuse, or periods where a child in their care is suffering distress due to experiencing or witnessing violence or abuse.
To assist identification and claimant support, each Jobcentre Plus site has a complex needs toolkit in place. These are maintained and reviewed locally and contain a named single point of contact for areas such as Homelessness, Care leavers and Prison leavers. Disability Employment Advisers (DEAs) are also on site to support when needed.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what (a) financial and (b) other steps her Department is taking to tackle knife crime in (i) Coventry North East constituency, (ii) Coventry, (iii) the West Midlands and (iv) England.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Home Office does not hold figures below the level of Police Force Area. In the year ending September 2020, there were 4,745 offences involving knives or sharp instruments in the West Midlands Police Force Area. This compares to 4,483 in the year ending September 2021. This represents a fall of 8% between September 2020 and September 2021.
The number of homicides recorded in the West Midlands Police Force Area involving a knife or sharp instrument over the last five years were as follows:
Year ending Sept 2017 - 23
Year ending Sept 2018 - 21
Year ending Sept 2019 - 22
Year ending Sept 2020 - 25
Year ending Sept 2021 - 23
The number of homicides recorded in England involving a knife or sharp instrument over the last five years were as follows:
Year ending Sept 2017 - 238
Year ending Sept 2018 - 279
Year ending Sept 2019 - 237
Year ending Sept 2020 - 252
Year ending Sept 2021 - 267
Tackling knife crime is a priority for this Government and we are supporting the police by recruiting an additional 20,000 police officers by March 2023. As at 31 December 2021, police forces in England and Wales have recruited over 11,000 additional officers as part of the Police Uplift Programme and West Midlands police force has recruited 844 additional uplift officers against a combined year 1 and 2 allocation of 730 officers.
Police funding is also increasing and, on 2 February 2022, the Government published a total police funding settlement of up to £16.9 billion in 2022/23. West Midlands Police will receive up to £694.9 million in 2022/23, an increase of up to £39.4 million when compared to 2021/22.
Since 2019, the Home Office has invested £105.5m (£35.5m this financial year) in the 18 areas worst affected by serious violence to develop Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) of which £10.11m has been allocated to the West Midlands PCC to develop the West Midlands VRU. VRUs combine the expertise of key local partners, including the police, health, education, and local authorities, to pinpoint the drivers of violence in their areas and deliver bespoke interventions in response. This includes targeted interventions with at-risk young people, ranging from behavioural therapy, social skills training, trusted adult relationships amongst many more. Over 300,000 young people have been supported by VRUs in their first two years of funding.
Additionally, we have made up to c.£17m available this financial year for additional early intervention and prevention programmes to support young people at high risk of involvement in serious violence, delivered via VRUs on top of their core funding. This includes three investments into the West Midlands, which are:
o £1.176m in high-intensity therapeutic interventions such as cognitive behavioural therapy, which the Youth Endowment Fund’s Evidence Toolkit identifies as likely to be highly effective in reducing violent crime;
o £455k in ‘teachable moment’ style interventions for young people involved in serious violence which capitalise on important moments when they are likely to be most receptive (for example, admission to A&E or in police custody), connecting them to a package of support enabling a more positive life course; and
o £591k in trauma-informed training for frontline professionals to help them improve support for young people by developing a greater understanding of different types of trauma that may have been experienced by the children and young people they work with.
Since 2019 we have invested a further £136.5m to support the police across the 18 areas in England and Wales worst affected by serious violence to increase operational activity to tackle serious violence, including by delivering targeted patrols in serious violence hotspots.
Since 2019, £15.541m of this funding has been allocated to West Midlands Police. We have also invested £200m in early intervention and prevention support initiatives over 10 years to support children and young people at risk of exploitation and involvement in serious violence through the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF). The YEF will support how this government responds to serious violence by identifying what works in diverting children and young people away from involvement in serious violent crime. In total, 15 grantees in the West Midlands are in receipt of funding from all grant rounds.
We will also help the police target those who have already been convicted of knife or offensive weapon offences and who persist in unlawfully carrying a knife or a weapon with the intention to commit more violence. We have introduced Serious Violence Reduction Orders (SVROs) in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts (PCSC) Bill which will give the police powers to stop and search those already convicted of knife and offensive weapon offences. West Midlands Police will be one of the four police forces to pilot SVROs.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of deaths resulting from offences which involved a knife or sharp instrument in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England in each of the last five years.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Home Office does not hold figures below the level of Police Force Area. In the year ending September 2020, there were 4,745 offences involving knives or sharp instruments in the West Midlands Police Force Area. This compares to 4,483 in the year ending September 2021. This represents a fall of 8% between September 2020 and September 2021.
The number of homicides recorded in the West Midlands Police Force Area involving a knife or sharp instrument over the last five years were as follows:
Year ending Sept 2017 - 23
Year ending Sept 2018 - 21
Year ending Sept 2019 - 22
Year ending Sept 2020 - 25
Year ending Sept 2021 - 23
The number of homicides recorded in England involving a knife or sharp instrument over the last five years were as follows:
Year ending Sept 2017 - 238
Year ending Sept 2018 - 279
Year ending Sept 2019 - 237
Year ending Sept 2020 - 252
Year ending Sept 2021 - 267
Tackling knife crime is a priority for this Government and we are supporting the police by recruiting an additional 20,000 police officers by March 2023. As at 31 December 2021, police forces in England and Wales have recruited over 11,000 additional officers as part of the Police Uplift Programme and West Midlands police force has recruited 844 additional uplift officers against a combined year 1 and 2 allocation of 730 officers.
Police funding is also increasing and, on 2 February 2022, the Government published a total police funding settlement of up to £16.9 billion in 2022/23. West Midlands Police will receive up to £694.9 million in 2022/23, an increase of up to £39.4 million when compared to 2021/22.
Since 2019, the Home Office has invested £105.5m (£35.5m this financial year) in the 18 areas worst affected by serious violence to develop Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) of which £10.11m has been allocated to the West Midlands PCC to develop the West Midlands VRU. VRUs combine the expertise of key local partners, including the police, health, education, and local authorities, to pinpoint the drivers of violence in their areas and deliver bespoke interventions in response. This includes targeted interventions with at-risk young people, ranging from behavioural therapy, social skills training, trusted adult relationships amongst many more. Over 300,000 young people have been supported by VRUs in their first two years of funding.
Additionally, we have made up to c.£17m available this financial year for additional early intervention and prevention programmes to support young people at high risk of involvement in serious violence, delivered via VRUs on top of their core funding. This includes three investments into the West Midlands, which are:
o £1.176m in high-intensity therapeutic interventions such as cognitive behavioural therapy, which the Youth Endowment Fund’s Evidence Toolkit identifies as likely to be highly effective in reducing violent crime;
o £455k in ‘teachable moment’ style interventions for young people involved in serious violence which capitalise on important moments when they are likely to be most receptive (for example, admission to A&E or in police custody), connecting them to a package of support enabling a more positive life course; and
o £591k in trauma-informed training for frontline professionals to help them improve support for young people by developing a greater understanding of different types of trauma that may have been experienced by the children and young people they work with.
Since 2019 we have invested a further £136.5m to support the police across the 18 areas in England and Wales worst affected by serious violence to increase operational activity to tackle serious violence, including by delivering targeted patrols in serious violence hotspots.
Since 2019, £15.541m of this funding has been allocated to West Midlands Police. We have also invested £200m in early intervention and prevention support initiatives over 10 years to support children and young people at risk of exploitation and involvement in serious violence through the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF). The YEF will support how this government responds to serious violence by identifying what works in diverting children and young people away from involvement in serious violent crime. In total, 15 grantees in the West Midlands are in receipt of funding from all grant rounds.
We will also help the police target those who have already been convicted of knife or offensive weapon offences and who persist in unlawfully carrying a knife or a weapon with the intention to commit more violence. We have introduced Serious Violence Reduction Orders (SVROs) in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts (PCSC) Bill which will give the police powers to stop and search those already convicted of knife and offensive weapon offences. West Midlands Police will be one of the four police forces to pilot SVROs.