Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 15 March 2024 to Question 17304 on Teachers: Veterans, how many people applied for the undergraduate veteran teaching bursary in the academic years (a) 2022-23 and (b) 2023-24; and what steps he is taking to increase the number of undergraduate veteran teachers.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Initial teacher training (ITT) providers are responsible for the management and administration of bursary payments, including assessment of eligibility. Trainees do not need to apply for a bursary and will automatically receive this from their ITT provider if eligible.
The undergraduate veteran teaching bursary is paid over the final two years of the course, with £20,000 payable in each year. In the 2022/23 and 2023/24 academic years, five individual trainees received the undergraduate veteran teaching bursary, three of whom received a bursary in both years. Figures may be subject to change due to ongoing data collection and assurance.
The department supports veterans into teaching in primary, secondary, and further education through its broad support services and bursaries. Since the publication of its commitments in the ‘Veterans Strategy Action Plan 2022 to 2024’, the department has tailored support and communications for the veteran community including dedicated teacher training advisers, webpages, case study blogs on the ‘Get Into Teaching’ website and information in Civvy Street publications. More information from Get Into Teaching is available here: https://getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/funding-and-support/if-youre-a-veteran and here: https://getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/blog/from-the-army-to-teacher-training. More information from Civvy Street can be found here: https://civvystreetmagazine.co.uk/2023/05/bring-your-unique-perspective-to-the-classroom-get-into-teaching-2/.
Also available are bespoke webinars, and the opportunity to attend regional employer fairs with the Career Transition Partnership (CTP) and British Forces Resettlement Service (BFRS). More information about the CTP can be found here: https://www.ctp.org.uk/job-finding/directory/get-into-teaching. More information about the BFRS can be found here: https://www.bfrss.org.uk/profiles/companies/986419/.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of employing veterans in schools to provide courses on leadership and resilience for (a) teachers and (b) students.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
A key principle behind the government's plan for education is to give teachers and school leaders the freedom to use their professional judgement to do what works best for their pupils. As such, headteachers are ultimately responsible for employment in their schools and the department trusts them to take decisions about the right mix of qualifications, skills and experience that they expect teachers in their schools to have.
The department recently reviewed the Initial Teacher Training (ITT) Core Content Framework (CCF) and Early Career Framework (ECF) alongside each other and revised the ITT CCF and the ECF into the combined and updated Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework (ITTECF). This now covers the first three years or more at the start of a teacher’s career, and sets out the entitlement of every trainee and early career teacher (ECT) to the core body of knowledge, skills and behaviours that define great teaching. The ITTECF is universal and designed to work for all teachers, across all phases and subjects.
Beyond this, school leaders are responsible for ensuring their workforce has appropriate training to meet the needs of all pupils, which is in line with the department’s position on school autonomy and school leaders being best placed to assess the needs of their pupils and workforce.
The government remains committed to supporting veterans with a passion for teaching to enter the profession, both in schools and the further education sector. The department is working with the Ministry of Defence to ensure veterans are aware of the range of programmes and support available through the department’s services and bursaries.
Veterans are eligible for a tax-free undergraduate bursary of £40,000 if they are:
Graduate veterans may also be eligible for a postgraduate scholarship or bursary if they are training to teach priority subjects.
More information on how the department support veterans to become teachers, including the offer of one-to-one support from a teacher training advisor, can be found here: https://getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/funding-and-support/if-youre-a-veteran.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing veteran awareness training for teachers.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
A key principle behind the government's plan for education is to give teachers and school leaders the freedom to use their professional judgement to do what works best for their pupils. As such, headteachers are ultimately responsible for employment in their schools and the department trusts them to take decisions about the right mix of qualifications, skills and experience that they expect teachers in their schools to have.
The department recently reviewed the Initial Teacher Training (ITT) Core Content Framework (CCF) and Early Career Framework (ECF) alongside each other and revised the ITT CCF and the ECF into the combined and updated Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework (ITTECF). This now covers the first three years or more at the start of a teacher’s career, and sets out the entitlement of every trainee and early career teacher (ECT) to the core body of knowledge, skills and behaviours that define great teaching. The ITTECF is universal and designed to work for all teachers, across all phases and subjects.
Beyond this, school leaders are responsible for ensuring their workforce has appropriate training to meet the needs of all pupils, which is in line with the department’s position on school autonomy and school leaders being best placed to assess the needs of their pupils and workforce.
The government remains committed to supporting veterans with a passion for teaching to enter the profession, both in schools and the further education sector. The department is working with the Ministry of Defence to ensure veterans are aware of the range of programmes and support available through the department’s services and bursaries.
Veterans are eligible for a tax-free undergraduate bursary of £40,000 if they are:
Graduate veterans may also be eligible for a postgraduate scholarship or bursary if they are training to teach priority subjects.
More information on how the department support veterans to become teachers, including the offer of one-to-one support from a teacher training advisor, can be found here: https://getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/funding-and-support/if-youre-a-veteran.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of encouraging veterans to become school governors.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department recognises the valuable skills, experience and perspectives that former military personnel can bring to schools and academy trusts. The department will continue to encourage schools and academy trusts, and the organisations that support them, to look for volunteers with a broad range of backgrounds, so that pupil outcomes can benefit from the best possible governance.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a veteran awareness day in schools.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department wants all children to leave school with the knowledge, skills, and values that will enable them to understand the world around them and prepare them to be active and responsible citizens in modern Britain. This could include activities focusing on the role of the armed forces and learning from the experiences of veterans.
It is important for schools to have flexibility over the design of their curriculum to ensure that it meets the needs of their pupils and the local context. Schools are able to use this flexibility to include a veterans awareness day or to teach about British veterans and the armed forces through subjects within the national curriculum, such as citizenship, history or English literature, or as part of wider remembrance activities.
Asked by: Earl of Effingham (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in the light of reports that homelessness among military veterans in England increased by 14 per cent in the past 12 months, what steps they plan to take to ensure that ongoing regular training on the benefits of financial, dietary and physical education are provided to members of the armed forces throughout their careers rather than only as they leave the armed forces.
Answered by Earl of Minto - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence is committed to the health and wellbeing of our Armed Forces. The Defence People Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2022-27 promotes the importance of health and wellbeing across Defence, adopting a holistic approach to mental health, physical health, and social health. It directs a coordinated approach to promote, prevent, detect and treat poor health and wellbeing early to enable optimal recovery. It ensures that all our people will be in a state of positive physical, mental and social health and wellbeing throughout their career.
The Ministry of Defence is also working to raise financial awareness among Service personnel; all three Services provide links on their welfare sites to several financial advisory sites including the Money and Pension Service (https://maps.org.uk/en#) and Joining Forces Credit Union (JFCU) (https://www.joiningforcescu.co.uk/). Service personnel are provided with online and face to face briefings from the JFCU which aim to assist them, their partners, families, and dependants, to be better equipped to manage their money and financial affairs. Officers can also signpost their personnel to the JFCU which supplies bespoke products to move Service personnel away from Payday Loan Companies. JFCU also attend events on military bases and provide general financial advice to both existing personnel and new recruits.
Regarding advice on nutrition, the Defence Nutrition Advisory Service (DNAS) provides evidence-based nutrition education and training through career, starting in Initial Military Training. The DNAS also provides over a hundred evidence-based factsheets and briefs within the themed areas of: Public Health Nutrition, Sports and Exercise Nutrition Military Nutrition, Clinical Nutrition and Nutrition for Health Professionals.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 21 February 2024 to Question 12906 on Alcoholism and Drugs: Veterans, whether her Department has made an assessment of the adequacy of rehabilitative care for injured veterans.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Government has not made any assessment of the adequacy of existing rehabilitative care for injured veterans. The National Rehabilitation Centre is part of the Government’s New Hospital Programme, and construction started in 2023. This new 70-bed facility will benefit all patients, including veterans, by bringing together patient care, research, innovation, and training and education under one roof.
In addition, Op RESTORE is a bespoke physical health and wellbeing service, commissioned by NHS England, which supports individuals who have served in, or are leaving, the British Armed Forces, and have physical health injuries and related medical problems attributed to their time in the Armed Forces.
NHS England continually works with its commissioned providers to improve the quality of data relating to the veterans that are being cared for by those services. No assessment has been made on the potential merits of the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the quantity and quality of data on veterans with mental health conditions, but we remain open to using AI to improve the quality of data where it is appropriate to do so.
Veterans are able to access all National Health Service mainstream health services, in addition to the bespoke NHS commissioned services. Access to mainstream health services is based on clinical need. The Veterans’ ID Card can assist where access to NHS services requires confirmation of military service, for example Op COURAGE and Op RESTORE.
The Armed Forces Act 2021 introduced a legal requirement for integrated care boards to give due regard to the Armed Forces Community when commissioning healthcare services. The 2024/25 general practice (GP) contract will introduce a requirement that GPs must have due regard for the requirements, needs, and circumstances of Armed Forces Veterans when offering services and making onward referrals. Integrated care boards are encouraged to work with health providers in their area, including GP surgeries, to ensure patient needs are met.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of using AI to improve the (a) quantity and (b) quality of data on veterans with mental health conditions.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Government has not made any assessment of the adequacy of existing rehabilitative care for injured veterans. The National Rehabilitation Centre is part of the Government’s New Hospital Programme, and construction started in 2023. This new 70-bed facility will benefit all patients, including veterans, by bringing together patient care, research, innovation, and training and education under one roof.
In addition, Op RESTORE is a bespoke physical health and wellbeing service, commissioned by NHS England, which supports individuals who have served in, or are leaving, the British Armed Forces, and have physical health injuries and related medical problems attributed to their time in the Armed Forces.
NHS England continually works with its commissioned providers to improve the quality of data relating to the veterans that are being cared for by those services. No assessment has been made on the potential merits of the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the quantity and quality of data on veterans with mental health conditions, but we remain open to using AI to improve the quality of data where it is appropriate to do so.
Veterans are able to access all National Health Service mainstream health services, in addition to the bespoke NHS commissioned services. Access to mainstream health services is based on clinical need. The Veterans’ ID Card can assist where access to NHS services requires confirmation of military service, for example Op COURAGE and Op RESTORE.
The Armed Forces Act 2021 introduced a legal requirement for integrated care boards to give due regard to the Armed Forces Community when commissioning healthcare services. The 2024/25 general practice (GP) contract will introduce a requirement that GPs must have due regard for the requirements, needs, and circumstances of Armed Forces Veterans when offering services and making onward referrals. Integrated care boards are encouraged to work with health providers in their area, including GP surgeries, to ensure patient needs are met.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a health card for veterans.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Government has not made any assessment of the adequacy of existing rehabilitative care for injured veterans. The National Rehabilitation Centre is part of the Government’s New Hospital Programme, and construction started in 2023. This new 70-bed facility will benefit all patients, including veterans, by bringing together patient care, research, innovation, and training and education under one roof.
In addition, Op RESTORE is a bespoke physical health and wellbeing service, commissioned by NHS England, which supports individuals who have served in, or are leaving, the British Armed Forces, and have physical health injuries and related medical problems attributed to their time in the Armed Forces.
NHS England continually works with its commissioned providers to improve the quality of data relating to the veterans that are being cared for by those services. No assessment has been made on the potential merits of the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the quantity and quality of data on veterans with mental health conditions, but we remain open to using AI to improve the quality of data where it is appropriate to do so.
Veterans are able to access all National Health Service mainstream health services, in addition to the bespoke NHS commissioned services. Access to mainstream health services is based on clinical need. The Veterans’ ID Card can assist where access to NHS services requires confirmation of military service, for example Op COURAGE and Op RESTORE.
The Armed Forces Act 2021 introduced a legal requirement for integrated care boards to give due regard to the Armed Forces Community when commissioning healthcare services. The 2024/25 general practice (GP) contract will introduce a requirement that GPs must have due regard for the requirements, needs, and circumstances of Armed Forces Veterans when offering services and making onward referrals. Integrated care boards are encouraged to work with health providers in their area, including GP surgeries, to ensure patient needs are met.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many undergraduate veteran teachers received bursaries in 2023.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The £40,000 tax-free undergraduate veteran teaching bursary is available to veterans who have left full-time employment from the British Army, Royal Air Force, or Royal Navy and enrol on an eligible undergraduate initial teacher training (ITT) course. The bursary is paid over the final two years of the course, with £20,000 payable in each year.
In the 2022/23 and 2023/24 academic years, five individual trainees received the undergraduate veteran teaching bursary. Figures may be subject to change due to ongoing data collection and assurance.
Veterans who have a degree can undertake postgraduate ITT courses, where they can access the bursaries and scholarships of up to £30,000 available on these routes into teaching.