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  • Chuka Umunna – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Chuka Umunna – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chuka Umunna on 2016-02-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how she plans to respond to the Concluding Observations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC); and whether her Department has made an assessment of the submission to the CRC by the Children’s Rights Alliance England in their See It, Say It, Change It report, published in July 2015.

    Edward Timpson

    As part of the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child, the UK Delegation will attend an oral hearing with the UN Committee in May 2016. Following this, the UN will produce concluding observations, which the UK will consider.

    The Government welcomes the views of children and young people. Senior officials, including the UK State Party’s delegation, have read and noted the contents of the ‘See It, Say It, Change It’ report and the Minister for Children and Families will meet with the group of young people who produced it to hear more about the issues that concern them.

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-02-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding her Department has provided to the Association of Independent Local Safeguarding Children’s Board Chairs in each financial year since its establishment.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    The Department for Education has provided the Association of Independent Local Safeguarding Children Board Chairs with funding totalling £460,000 between September 2012 and March 2016, as follows:

    Financial year

    Total

    2012 – 2013

    £60,000

    2013 – 2014

    £180,000

    2014 – 2015

    £130,000

    2015 – 2016

    £90,000
  • Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-02-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which local authorities take Frontline participants on placement; and what plans she has to expand the number of local authorities involved in the Frontline programme.

    Edward Timpson

    18 local authorities in the London and Greater Manchester regions are taking Frontline participants on placement as part of the 2015 Cohort, these are as follows:

    Bexley

    Croydon

    Ealing

    Enfield

    Essex

    Hammersmith & Fulham

    Harrow

    Kensington & Chelsea

    Kingston

    Manchester

    Merton

    Richmond

    Salford

    Southwark

    Tower Hamlets

    Westminster

    Wigan

    Windsor & Maidenhead

    Frontline will expand to the North East as part of Cohort 2016. As a result, up to 29 local authorities are expected to take Frontline participants on placement; local authorities confirmed so far include:

    Bexley

    Ealing

    Enfield

    Essex

    Gateshead

    Hammersmith & Fulham

    Harrow

    Hartlepool

    Havering

    Hounslow

    Kensington & Chelsea

    Kingston

    Manchester

    Merton

    Newham

    North Tyneside

    Northumberland

    Oldham

    Redcar

    Richmond

    Rochdale

    Southwark

    Sunderland

    Tower Hamlets

    Trafford

    Westminster

    Wigan

    Windsor & Maidenhead

  • Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-02-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether Frontline has any formal partners in the private sector which give participants priority for their entry schemes.

    Edward Timpson

    Frontline do not have any formal partners in the private sector which give participants priority for their entry scheme.

  • Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-02-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to encourage more people to train as children’s social workers.

    Edward Timpson

    Government policy intends to improve the quality of social work and overhaul the system of social worker education to make it more effective.

    In December 2015, the Prime Minister announced a further package of measures to underpin the Government’s commitment to reforming social work and protecting vulnerable children, part of which is a £100m investment during the current parliament for fast-track social work training programmes such as Step Up and Frontline.

    There were 1875 applications for the 2015 cohort of Frontline, and 4306 applications for 2016 Cohort of Step Up. We aim to train over 3,000 new social workers through fast-track schemes over the Spending Review period.

    In addition to this commitment to fast-track schemes government invested £695m into mainstream social work training between 2010-15, including social work bursaries and Education Support Grant, which supported generic qualifications for those wishing to enter social work. The 2015/16 funding for social work bursaries and Education Support Grant is £81M. There is no confirmation for the 2016/7 allocation.

  • Joan Ryan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Joan Ryan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Joan Ryan on 2016-02-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department (a) has taken or (b) plans to take to analyse the reasons for the changes in the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index in (i) Enfield, (ii) London and (iii) UK between 2010 and 2015.

    Brandon Lewis

    The 2015 Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index was published as part of the English Indices of Deprivation and is the best measure of the proportion of all children aged 0 to 15 living in income deprived families. Changes to the methodology, indicators and published guidance were made following a public consultation in late 2014 to inform the 2015 update.

  • Joan Ryan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Joan Ryan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Joan Ryan on 2016-02-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will commission a technical review of the indicators of deprivation used to decide formulae for funding for (a) schools and (b) free school meals.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    Children from disadvantaged backgrounds often need extra support at school to achieve as well as their peers. That is why, in addition to providing £2.5 billion this year through the pupil premium – which we have protected at current rates for the duration of the parliament – we also require local authorities to target funding for deprived pupils through their local formula.

    Under current arrangements local authorities can choose between a pupil-level measure of disadvantage (pupils eligible for free school meals or eligible at any point in the previous 6 years) or an area-level measure of disadvantage (the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index), or a combination. We are aware that the update to the area-level deprivation data last year led to some areas changing their local formulae to mitigate the impact on deprivation funding for their schools.

    We recently launched the first stage of the consultation on our plans to introduce a national funding formula for schools from 2017. Our proposals would mean schools’ funding is matched fairly and transparently to their needs and their pupils’ characteristics. Through the consultation process we are seeking views on the best way to target funding for disadvantaged pupils to support them to achieve to the best of their ability.

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

    Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-02-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of foreign language teachers are native speakers.

    Nick Gibb

    The information requested is not collected by the Department for Education.

  • Julian Sturdy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Julian Sturdy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Sturdy on 2016-02-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what plans her Department has to differentiate between different types of less-established technologies in the next Contracts for Difference allocation round.

    Andrea Leadsom

    As we did in the first CFD allocation round, we will use an auction to differentiate between the projects in the less established technologies pot. We keep the technologies eligible for each pot under review to make sure that our decarbonisation and affordability objectives are met.

  • Julian Sturdy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Julian Sturdy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Sturdy on 2016-02-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment her Department has made of the relative costs of tidal lagoon projects compared to other forms of tidal power technology.

    Andrea Leadsom

    The Government’s extensive Severn Tidal Power feasibility study and the recent work as part of the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon Contract for Difference negotiations show that costs for tidal lagoons may be broadly comparable to other tidal range technologies. However, the detailed relative costs of projects will be dependent on their geographical location, individual design and financing models.

    We have not made any comparative assessment of costs with tidal stream technologies, which are at a very early stage of development and have a highly different asset-life to tidal range.