Tag: Dan Jarvis

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-04-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding she plans to make available for turnaround activity as part of the Northern Powerhouse Schools Strategy; and what formula or method she plans to use to allocate funding.

Nick Gibb

Our White Paper, Education Excellence Everywhere, sets out the range of support we will offer to schools across England.

Where schools are failing, Regional Schools Commissioners will identify a suitable academy sponsor to turn them around. In areas where there are too few sponsors, we will recruit new sponsors, including high-performing schools and more sponsors from business, charity and philanthropy. We will also encourage existing sponsors to expand, increasing incentives and minimising barriers, learning from the investment we have already made through the Northern Sponsor Fund.

For other struggling schools, we will ensure there is nationwide coverage of system leaders (teaching schools and National Leaders of Education), who will be expected to work with weaker schools to support them to improve. To help achieve this, we will improve how we designate system leaders by introducing a more sophisticated approach based on timely and accurate data rather than relying heavily on Ofsted judgements. We will also partner schools with the potential to become strong system leaders with existing teaching schools and National Leaders of Education.

Through the Department’s strategy for Achieving Excellence Areas, we will target our existing programmes to secure sufficient high quality teachers, leaders, system leaders, sponsors and members of governing boards on the areas of greatest need. At the Budget, the Government announced that we will invest an additional £20 million a year to build on this strategy to raise education standards across the Northern Powerhouse. The allocation of this funding will depend on the identified need and will be reassessed each year, based on the evidence.

For the additional funding announced in the budget, decisions on how the funding will be allocated for the 2016-17 financial year will be made by the autumn of this year and will be informed by the emerging findings of the review by Sir Nick Weller. We will be publishing the terms of reference for Sir Nick Weller’s review shortly.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-06-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to close attainment gaps within schools in the north of England that are rated good or outstanding.

Nick Gibb

The Department’s recent White Paper, Educational excellence everywhere, sets out the action we are taking to support all pupils to reach their full potential and close the gaps in attainment that exist between different groups.

The gap in attainment between disadvantaged pupils and their peers is closing at both Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 4. Our protection of the pupil premium at current rates for the remainder of the Parliament will help schools to build on this success. In 2015-16 we provided schools in the north of England with £768 million of pupil premium funding. We are supporting schools to make more effective use of the pupil premium, including by appointing a teaching school in each region to champion the use of the pupil premium. These schools will train successful school leaders to review the way schools are using the pupil premium and to act as regional hubs for effective practice.

Schools will continue to be held to account for the standard of education they provide for all pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, through performance tables and Ofsted inspection. Our new headline measure of school performance, Progress 8, will encourage schools to push every child to achieve their best. The results of disadvantaged pupils will be reported separately in the school performance tables, ensuring a focus on the attainment of this group. In line with our high expectations for all pupils, performance data will emphasise the difference between disadvantaged pupils in the school and other pupils nationally, rather than focussing on gaps within the school. Data on the performance of disadvantaged pupils will feed into the risk assessment process that Ofsted uses to assess whether good and outstanding providers have declined since their last inspection. This will inform Ofsted’s prioritisation of short inspections for good schools and the identification of any concerns about outstanding schools.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-10-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what support his Department makes available for young people diagnosed with Crohn’s disease.

David Mowat

Crohn’s Disease Management in Adults, Children and Young People, published by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in October 2012, sets out best practice guidance for clinicians and commissioners in the diagnosis, treatment care and support of patients with Crohn’s disease. The guidance includes a number of specific recommendations concerning young people such as the need to offer age-appropriate multidisciplinary support to deal with any concerns about the disease and its treatment, including concerns about body image, living with a chronic illness, and attending school and higher education.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2015-11-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to help raise awareness of diabetes in (a) Barnsley Central constituency, (b) Yorkshire and the Humber and (c) the UK.

Jane Ellison

The NHS Health Check programme is one of the mandatory public health functions of local authorities in England. It aims to prevent some of the biggest causes of premature death and disability in people aged 40-74.A routine part of NHS Health Check involves assessing a person’s risk of Type 2 diabetes and, for those at risk, a diagnostic test to confirm whether they have the condition. This then informs a discussion on, and agreement of, the lifestyle and medical approaches best suited to managing the person’s risk of developing cardiovascular diseases such as Type 2 diabetes.

As the National Diabetes Prevention Programme (NDPP) begins phased national roll out in 2016/17, the programme will be providing information that helps raise awareness of the risk factors associated with developing Type 2 Diabetes and the lifestyle changes that they can make to reduce their risk – including, if eligible attending the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme. This activity is already underway in our seven demonstrator sites that the programme is working with. Within Yorkshire and the Humber, Bradford is one of these demonstrator sites.

Building on the NDPP, the Department is developing its plans to improve outcomes for those with and at risk of diabetes. These will be announced in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2015-11-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 on recoverable costs in medical negligence cases.

Ben Gummer

The fixed recoverable cost regime is seeking to streamline claims for clinical negligence, focusing on what is required for a fair and proportionate resolution and encouraging a process that is more resource efficient and that incentivises the right behaviours by all parties. It extends the benefits of fixed cost regimes already realised in other areas of personal injury, as recommended by Lord Justice Jackson,and is not about the number of claims being brought.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-01-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when (a) her Department and (b) the contractor G4S became aware of concerns that asylum seekers were being housed in properties with doors that are all uniform or nearly uniform in colour.

James Brokenshire

Home Office officials are working closely with our housing providers to ensure that asylum seeker accommodation is not easily identifiable. I am not aware of a uniform door colour being the practice in any other region. My officials have also spoken to our housing providers to tell them that such a practice is not acceptable.

I was first made aware of this issue when The Times contacted the Home Office in mid-January. G4S has investigated correspondence and discussions on the issue of external door colour in the North East and has confirmed that it was raised in 2012 by a Middlesbrough local councillor and was considered by the G4S audit and assurance team, no complaints from asylum seekers relating to this matter were found and a response was issued.

As I said to the House on 20 January, I instructed officials to look into this issue as a matter of urgency and I expect that the audit will be concluded on the Home Office side very shortly.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-01-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to monitor whether the number of refugee places for victims of domestic violence is increasing or decreasing.

Mr Marcus Jones

We have invested over £280,000 in UK Refuges on Line (UKROL) to monitor the number of refuge bedspaces around the country to ensure that victims get the support that they need. It will also ensure victims calling the National Domestic Violence Helpline looking for refuge get additional help in finding the support they need.

Domestic abuse is a devastating crime that shatters lives. That is why we are committed to ensuring that no victim is turned away from the support they need. To support this ambition, we have committed long term fund of £40 million over the next four years which will offer support to victims of domestic abuse. This increased funding, which triples our funding in the last spending period, complements Government’s wider approach and support for violence against women and children’s services, which will be set out in the forthcoming refresh of the Strategy.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-02-22.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of the public sector exit cap proposed in the Enterprise Bill on employees of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

Greg Hands

An impact analysis was published within the exit payment cap consultation document which respondents had an opportunity to comment on. Further, the Government has been working with departments, including the Department of Energy and Climate Change, to inform the impact of a public sector exit payment cap set at £95,000 in different sectors and on different categories of workers. The exit payment cap consultation can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consultation-on-a-public-sector-exit-payment-cap

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-02-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if his Department will produce a strategy on how the UK’s steel requirements will be met over the next (a) 12 months and (b) five years.

Anna Soubry

The Government’s believes that the best way to meet the UK’s steel needs over the next twelve months and five years is to ensure a viable future for the steel industry in Britain, as well as to work for fair and open global steel markets. To this end we have taken action on the five short-term asks of the steel industry, for example on unfairly-traded imports, energy costs, procurement, and emissions regulations.

A new Steel Council will provide a forum for industry, unions and government to consider how to improve the competitive position of the UK steel sector in the longer term. We will continue to work actively with partners in this sector, local taskforces and the EU and International Community to support our steel industry.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-03-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much funding his Department received from the European Social Fund (a) between 2007 and 2014 and (b) from 2014 to the last month for which data is available.

Mr Edward Vaizey

DCMS received no funding from the European Social Fund (ESF) programme during the period specified.