Tag: Jess Phillips

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-07-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department has spent on its teaching blog since that blog was established.

Nick Gibb

The teaching blog has received an average of 758 visits per week, and 15,938 visits in total. The costs are only in staff time and image usage of £2.50 per image as the blog is hosted on the GOV.UK platform. The blog is run by the Department’s social media team as a small proportion of one member of staff’s overall workload.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-10-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many colleges which were not recognised or listed have been shut down in each of the last three years; and how many such colleges are currently under investigation.

Joseph Johnson

The Government has clamped down on immigration abuse from poor quality institutions selling immigration rather than education. Since 2010, more than 920 institutions have been struck off the Tier 4 sponsors list.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-10-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of supply teachers working in schools.

Nick Gibb

The data requested is not available.

Supply teachers play a valuable role in helping schools to address their teacher deployment needs. It is for individual head teachers to determine when it is appropriate to use a supply teacher.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2015-11-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 17 November 2015 to Question 15557, on what date her Department plans to publish updated information on free school projects that opened or were withdrawn or cancelled.

Edward Timpson

We intend to publish updated expenditure for free school projects in early 2016.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-02-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of children (a) under 16 and (b) between 16 and 18 who have been groomed on social media sites in each year since 2010.

Karen Bradley

Significant under-reporting of online grooming is likely and it is therefore difficult fully to quantify numbers. The National Strategic Assessment of Serious and Organised Crime, issued by the National Crime Agency, recognises child sexual exploitation and abuse as one of the highest serious and organised crime risks and the Home Office has published a review of the evidence on cybercrime, including online grooming (Cyber Crime: A Review of the Evidence Research Report 75. Chapter 3: Cyber-enabled crimes – sexual offending against children, McGuire and Dowling 2013).

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-03-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress her Department has made on implementation of the recommendations of the report by Charlie Taylor, Improving Alternative Provision, published in March 2012.

Nick Gibb

The Department accepted the recommendations made by Charlie Taylor in ‘Improving Alternative Provision (AP)’, and has made a number of changes in response.

We have put in place the framework for Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) to convert to AP academies and for high quality independent providers to become AP free schools. PRUs now have greater autonomy over their staffing and budgets as a result. We have revised the funding system for AP to support more informed decisions on the best AP for individual pupils.

We have ensured that Initial Teacher Training placements can now be delivered by PRUs, AP academies and AP free schools. Schools’ use of AP is now a greater focus of school inspection. We have also removed restrictions over the use of maintained schools’ power to direct pupils to be educated offsite for the purposes of improving their behaviour. We have published stronger statutory guidance on the use of AP and the education of pupils unable to attend school because of health needs.

Since the review, the Department has undertaken further research into the AP system, working with local authorities, head teachers of AP or special schools, and reviewing international evidence.

The Department announced in the White Paper published on 17 March 2016, ‘Education Excellence Everywhere’, that we will be taking further steps to build on the recommendations made in Charlie Taylor’s review in order to meet our vision for a world class system of AP. This paper is available on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/educational-excellence-everywhere.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-04-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 22 March 2016 to Question 30916, if she will publish details of the 26 related party transactions by academy trusts classified as irregular or improper by the Education Funding Agency.

Edward Timpson

Related party transactions by academy trusts can be classified as irregular or improper if they are not dealt with in accordance with Parliament’s intentions, legislation, the terms of the trust’s funding agreement, the Academies Financial Handbook or the trust’s internal procedures. This includes spending money other than for the purposes intended by Parliament or without the appropriate standards of conduct.

Academy trusts operate under a robust accountability system which holds them to account for the results they achieve and their use of resources. This includes a requirement to publish audited accounts each year allowing the wider public the chance to hold academy trusts to account to help make sure that spend is securing better outcomes for pupils.

The 26 related party transactions are irregular and noted in the table below (together with our findings from reviewing 2013/14 financial statements). It is important to note that irregular classification can occur where there is insufficient evidence to form an opinion.

Concern type	Summary of concern	Number of breaches
At cost	The trust either confirmed that services from a related party were not provided at cost or there was insufficient evidence of this.	5
Off-payroll	The trust confirmed that they were not compliant with HM Treasury’s off-payroll requirements for a senior member of staff.	5
Procurement	The trust confirmed they did not follow an adequate procurement process for certain purchases from a related party.	6
Procurement issues/ recruitment of family	The trust confirmed they did not follow an adequate procurement process for certain purchases from a familial related party.	1
Procurement/ at cost	The trust confirmed they did not follow an adequate procurement process for certain purchases from a related party. The trust also either confirmed that services from a related party were not provided at cost or there was insufficient evidence of this.	9

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-04-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many academy schools are (a) in the process of being re-brokered and (b) awaiting re-brokering.

Edward Timpson

There have been 130 academies and free schools (2% of academies) moved from a trust that had not been able to secure necessary improvements, to a strong sponsor. Regional Schools Commissioners (RSCs) are looking at the appropriate action to take with those that currently have no formal action, working with trusts to improve school performance or looking at sponsor solutions where they feel that the trust is not meeting the required standards.

The table below shows the numbers of academies which have been re-brokered to other academy sponsors, split by academic year.

Academic Year	Number of academies re-brokered to other academy sponsors
2011/12	2
2012/13	2
2013/14	13
2014/15	64
2015/16	49
Total	130

There are 38 academies in the process of moving from a trust that has not been able to secure necessary improvements, to a strong sponsor.

The Department does not hold information on the number of academies which are awaiting re-brokerage. RSCs will work with schools in a number of ways before considering moving them to a new sponsor.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-05-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Answer of 11 May 2016 to Question 35798, on Academies Sponsorship, how many of the re-brokered schools in each year since 2010 had been graded inadequate by Ofsted.

Edward Timpson

60 of the 130 academies and free schools that have been re-brokered since 2010 had been graded inadequate by Ofsted.

The remaining academies and free schools were re-brokered because Regional Schools Commissioners identified weaknesses in those schools that could be better addressed by a new sponsor.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-06-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many academy schools hold the freehold of their school sites.

Edward Timpson

The Department does not retain a central record of the land holding arrangements for individual academies. However, the vast majority of academies will be occupying sites on the basis of a lease from the relevant local authority.

No school gains the freehold of a school site as a result of becoming an academy. Academies own their own land only where the school already owned the land before converting to academy status. These are usually former foundation or voluntary schools which are generally the freeholders of their own land even as maintained schools and in the case of voluntary schools which tend to mainly occupy land which was not originally provided by the state.

The Department does not have detailed information on the current and historic ownership of academy land and buildings, and had chosen not to prioritise the expenditure necessary to resolve the issue.