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  • Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate she has made of the adequacy of the level of investment in language subjects at school in each of the last five years.

    Nick Gibb

    The Government has invested some £5 million since 2011, funding projects in schools to raise standards of teaching in languages and to equip teachers to teach the new and more demanding languages curriculum.

    We continue to offer generous bursaries for languages trainees, with up to £25,000 for those with a first class or 2:1 degree. In addition, from September 2016 there will be a programme of school-led teacher subject specialism training in modern foreign languages for qualified teachers who wish to develop skills in an additional language to their current specialism, and to provide refresher training for former languages teachers to return to teaching. This funding totals £1.5 million in the current academic year.

  • Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to encourage more young people to take A-level language subjects.

    Nick Gibb

    Modern foreign languages are one of the Russell Group’s facilitating subjects – A levels which open doors to more degrees and professions than other subjects. We are incentivising the take-up of these A levels in the 16-19 performance tables through the facilitating subject measure, and are encouraging the best language graduates to enter the teaching profession, through financial incentives such as a bursary of £25,000 for trainees with a first class or 2:1 relevant degree.

  • Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department plans to invest in early intervention services for young people with mental health conditions in each of the next five years.

    Edward Timpson

    Children and young people’s mental health is a priority for this Government, supported by an additional £1.4 billion over the lifetime of this Parliament. Each clinical commissioning group has worked with partners, including schools and colleges, to develop a Local Transformation Plan setting out how they will provide support for the full spectrum of mental health conditions, including early intervention measures.

    Schools and colleges have an important role to play in supporting the mental health of children and young people, and we will continue to invest in this. We have provided them with a range of information, support, advice and guidance to help them develop ‘whole-school’ approaches to best suit the needs of their pupils. This includes guidance on: teaching about such issues as depression and anxiety within their personal, social, health and economic education curriculum, and providing effective school-based counselling. Teachers can also access free online support for pupils with a range of mental health issues, including depression and anxiety, through the MindEd website.

    We want to support schools and colleges further, and to help us to know where to best direct this support we are currently conducting a large-scale survey asking them what approaches they use, as well as what they find to be the most effective. The results should be available next spring.

    The Department of Health has also commissioned a new prevalence survey that should provide updated information on a range of specific mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression. This is due to report in 2018.

  • Jamie Reed – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Jamie Reed – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jamie Reed on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people with refugee status have undertaken study at the level of higher education in the UK in each of the last six years.

    Joseph Johnson

    The Government has a longstanding and proud tradition of providing a safe haven to those who have no choice but to leave their home country because of endangerment to their lives or those of their families.

    Student support is available to those recognised as refugees (and their spouses, civil partners and children named on the initial application for asylum), provided they have been ordinarily resident in the British Islands since being recognised by the Government as a refugee and are ordinarily resident in England on the first day of the first academic year of the course. They are exempt from the three year residence requirement.

    Asylum seekers who are recognised as refugees after the start of their course may qualify for support for the remainder of their studies as follows:

    • living cost support in any subsequent years of the course (and in the quarters following the award in the year of the award); and

    • fee assistance in any subsequent years of the course (and in the year of the award if the award is made within three months of the first day of the academic year of the course).

    Information on the total number of students with a refugee status undertaking Higher Education courses in the UK is not available.

    Information is available from the Student Loans Company (SLC) on applicants with refugee status awarded student finance. Management information from the SLC showing the number of refugee applicants awarded loans in England in each of the last six years can be found in the table below:

    English Domiciled applicants with a refugee status awarded student loans

    Academic years 2009/10 to 2014/15 (data effective as at the end of each academic year)

    Academic Year

    Number of refugees awarded loans

    2009/10

    2,000

    2010/11

    2,500

    2011/12

    3,000

    2012/13

    3,700

    2013/14

    3,800

    2014/15

    3,900

    Source: SLC, Management Information

    Note: Awards do not necessarily translate into payments. An awarded applicant will only receive payments once SLC has received confirmation from the student’s provider at the start of the academic year that the student has been registered on the course.

  • Jamie Reed – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Jamie Reed – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jamie Reed on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support her Department provides to students with refugee status.

    Edward Timpson

    The Government is wholly committed to ensuring that refugees who are resettled in the UK receive appropriate support and have a positive experience while they remain in the UK. Children with refugee or humanitarian protection status have access to the education system in the same way as citizen children.

    Many pupils with refugee status will be classed as having English as an additional language (EAL). Current school funding arrangements enable local authorities to allocate a proportion of their funding to schools on the basis of the number of pupils in each school who have EAL, and who have been in the school system for a maximum of three years. Local authorities, in agreement with their schools forum, have the freedom to set the pupil rate for this, based on local circumstances.

    Furthermore, pupils who have been registered for free school meals at any point in the last six years attract additional funding to the schools they attend in the form of the Pupil Premium. This is worth £1,320 per annum for each eligible pupil in primary school, and £935 per annum for those in secondary school. Pupils who are looked after by the local authority, including unaccompanied refugee children, and those who have left care through adoption or other specified routes also attract the Pupil Premium Plus, at the higher rate of £1,900 per annum. Schools have flexibility over how they use the funding to improve the educational outcomes of their pupil premium-eligible pupils, and are held to account through the focus in Ofsted inspections and the school performance tables on the progress and attainment of disadvantaged pupils.

  • Mark Hendrick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Mark Hendrick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Hendrick on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to implement the actions identified for it in the Government’s Ending Violence against Women and Girls Strategy 2016-2020, published in March 2016; and when a member of staff from her Department last attended a Violence against Women and Girls Stakeholder Meeting chaired by the Home Office.

    Caroline Dinenage

    The Government is committed to delivering the Strategy published in March. The table below shows the progress made in delivering the actions allocated to the Department for Education (DfE) or the Government Equalities Office (GEO).

    REF

    DfE/ GEO

    ACTION

    PROGRESS

    1

    GEO

    Develop new guidance in consultation with teachers for PHSE lessons specifically about gender equality (Apr 2016).

    GEO has been working with the PSHE Association to consult teachers on how best to deliver this commitment.

    2

    GEO

    Fund the Freedom Charity to expand the ‘Train the Trainers’ project…. (Apr 2016).

    GEO funded the Freedom Charity to expand their ‘Train the Trainers’ project to reach a greater number of communities and empower teachers to deal with the topic of forced marriage sensitively and confidently. This funding enabled an additional 3,620 students and 1,230 staff to learn about forced marriage with Freedom.

    3

    DfE

    Publish a consultation report on updated statutory safeguarding guidance for schools, Keeping Children Safe in Education, to come into force in September 2016 (May 2016).

    DfE published the Government response to the consultation in May, and published a draft of the revised guidance for information at that time. The guidance came into force on 5 September 2016.

    5

    HO/ GEO

    Launch the second phase of the national prevention campaign to challenge abuse in teenage relationships and promote understanding of health relationships and consent – including among LGB&T teenagers (Feb 2016).

    GEO, in partnership with the Home Office, launched Disrespect Nobody, the second phase of the national prevention campaign to challenge abuse in teenage relationships. This included a TV advert, along with a dedicated website, blogs and guidance for teachers.

    6

    DfE

    Launch a communications campaign to encourage the public to report all forms of child abuse to help address people’s fear of reporting (Mar – autumn 2016).

    In March 2016 DfE launched the national Together we can tackle child abuse campaign to encourage members of the public to report any concerns they may have about a child, in particular about suspected child abuse and neglect. Over 100 councils have engaged with the campaign so far, and our findings indicate that it is giving people a sense of confidence to report their suspicions. We know it takes time to change opinions and behaviours, which is why we plan to run the campaign again in 2017.

    8

    GEO

    Update Media Smart resources (with the Advertising Association) to help teachers and parents improve primary school children’s understanding of how gender is represented in the media and their resilience to negative content (Sep 2016).

    GEO commissioned the charity Media Smart to develop a new resource to help teachers and parents improve primary school children’s understanding of how gender is represented in the media and their resilience to negative content. The resource was published in August 2016 and will be disseminated to schools this term.

    10

    GEO

    Conduct or commission mapping of the evidence base and initiatives that engage men, boys and bystanders in VAWG prevention to identify how Government can build on these initiatives to further social change (Apr 2017).

    GEO is currently mapping the evidence base and initiatives that engage men, boys and bystanders in VAWG prevention, as well as meeting with stakeholders working in this area.

    18

    DfE

    Raise standards in social work and overhaul social work education and practice to improve the recruitment, retention and development of social workers under-pinned by a new regulator…. (all social workers assessed and accredited by 2020).

    DfE is continuing to develop our plans for the assessment and accreditation of child and family social workers and will consult this autumn. We expect the first social workers will begin assessment in spring 2017. The Children and Social Work Bill includes provision to establish a new regulator for social workers.

    19

    DfE

    Establish a What Works Centre, with up to £20m of funding, which will be an evidence-based resource to support social workers and work alongside the Chief Social Worker (by end 2016).

    It is expected that the What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care will be established in 2017 – we are currently considering options for the model and set-up process and carried out early market engagement in June/July 2016 to inform our thinking.

    28

    GEO/ HO

    Establish an official Government working group to map out current issues, prevalence, initiatives and barriers to addressing gendered online abuse to improve understanding and coordinate the response to online manifestations of VAWG (Dec 2016).

    In partnership with the Home Office, GEO has established an official Government working group to do this. This work is ongoing.

    30

    GEO

    Continue to ensure victims of revenge pornography have access to bespoke support and advice about their right to have the images removed from websites (review Apr 2017).

    GEO has funded the Revenge Porn Helpline for a further year to continue its important work supporting victims of revenge porn and working to have such images removed from websites.

    68

    DfE

    Carry out an urgent review of Local Safeguarding Children Boards and take forward plans to centralise serious case reviews so that lessons from serious incidents can be learned more quickly and effectively (review completed by Mar 2016).

    The review was completed in March 2016 and published in May 2016. Provisions to cover the key recommendations on LSCBs and reviews are included in the Children and Social Work Bill.

    Department officials are in regular contact with their Home Office counterparts to discuss relevant policy issues, including those raised by stakeholders. Such discussions run alongside inter-ministerial meetings, the most recent of which I attended in June.

  • Karl McCartney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Karl McCartney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karl McCartney on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department has taken to prepare for the UK to leave the EU since 23 June 2016; and what further such steps her Department plans to take in the remainder of 2016.

    Caroline Dinenage

    The Department for Exiting the European Union has responsibility for overseeing preparations for the withdrawal of the UK from the EU and conducting these withdrawal negotiations in support of the Prime Minister. In doing this it is working very closely with other government departments, including the Department for Education, and a wide range of other interested parties.

  • Gloria De Piero – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Gloria De Piero – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gloria De Piero on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many key stage 1 children in (a) Ashfield constituency and (b) Nottinghamshire were in classes of more than (i) 30 and (ii) 35 children in the academic year beginning September 2015.

    Nick Gibb

    I refer the Hon. Member to the reply given in PQ 41627 on 6 July 2016.

  • Andrew Stephenson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Andrew Stephenson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Stephenson on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support to find school places is available for British families with school-age children returning to the UK after a long period of time.

    Edward Timpson

    Any British national has the right to apply for a school place irrespective of where they live and any state-funded school must admit their child if they have space. Local authorities must provide information about all schools and available places in their area.

  • Alex Chalk – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Alex Chalk – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Chalk on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when funding bands for apprenticeships starting after April 2017 will be published.

    Robert Halfon

    Details of proposed funding bands for existing apprenticeship frameworks and standards were published on 12 August: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/apprenticeships-proposals-for-funding-from-may-2017. The proposals were supported by a short employer survey which closed on 5 September.

    We aim to publish final funding bands for apprenticeship frameworks and standards in October for those that start on or after 1 May 2017.

    “