Tag: Jess Phillips

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-06-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many multi-academy trusts trustees have been removed from post under the Companies Act 2006.

Edward Timpson

The department’s model articles of association for academy trusts provide several routes by which trustees (directors) can be removed from their post, in addition to the Companies Act 2006. There is no role for the Secretary of State in removing a director using the procedure set out in that Act.

When a director is removed from post, retires or resigns, the remaining directors must notify Companies House within 14 days, as required by the Act. There is no requirement to specify whether this was carried out using the procedure set out in the Act or using a different route. Separately, there is a requirement to notify the Secretary of State – via the Education Funding Agency – of the vacating or filling of the positions of chair of trustees, accounting officer and chief financial officer and all new appointments of trustees and members.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-07-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to publish the Small Schools Taskforce report on free school meals.

Nick Gibb

The small schools taskforce was made up of a number of local authority and private sector caterers and manufacturers who were unpaid but could claim expenses. The total value of the contract to deliver action arising from the School Food Plan was £204,000. We are able to directly attribute around £10,000 of this to the work of the Small Schools Taskforce; in addition there would have been small amounts claimed in expenses for the other taskforce members.

The majority of the findings from the Small Schools Taskforce report are already in the public domain following the publication of the toolkit for small schools, which is available at: http://www.thegreatschoollunch.co.uk/media/169570/CFT-SmallSchoolToolkit.pdf

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to promote and enable partners to share parental leave.

Margot James

Shared Parental Leave and Pay came into effect in December 2014 for the parents of children due or placed for adoption from 5 April 2015. The Coalition Government ran a multi-channel campaign comprising of PR, digital and advertising activity aimed at parents and their employers leading up to the scheme coming into effect. The scheme received national press coverage at the time of introduction and subsequently, and was also promoted through a number of stakeholder focussed events, targeted at parents, employers and HR professionals.

Information and advice on shared parental leave is available on GOV.UK and through Acas.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2015-11-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many planning areas in England are in need of additional primary school places by September 2016; in how many of those planning areas there has never been an application to open a primary or all-through mainstream free school; and in how of those planning areas there are no primary or all-through mainstream free schools.

Edward Timpson

The Department collects information from each local authority on the number of available school places and pupil forecasts through the annual school capacity survey (SCAP). The main tables contain local authority level data. The underlying data on school capacity is published at school level and pupil forecasts at planning area level. The latest published data, relating to the position as reported at May 2014, can be found on GOV.UK [1].

The Department also publishes local authority basic need scorecards for primary schools. The latest scorecards relate to 2014 capacity and contain departmental estimates of the number of additional primary school places needed to meet demand in 2016/17, once existing plans for new places have been factored in. The latest data and details of the methodology used for the estimates can be found on GOV.UK [2]

The scorecard summary data shows that across England around 63,000 additional primary places were estimated to be needed to meet demand in 2016/17, based on capacity and planned places at May 2014. The Department does not publish data on the number of additional primary places needed to meet demand at planning area level.

The Department does not currently publish basic need scorecards for secondary school places.

Between 2003/4 and 2009/10 the total number of school places in the system reduced by 200,000, against a backdrop of rising birth rates. That is why the Coalition Government doubled the funding available to create new school places during the last Parliament to £5 billion, and this Government has committed to invest a further £7 billion during this Parliament. The latest published information shows there were 445,000 more school places in May 2014 than in May 2010, and we know that many more places have been delivered since then or are in the pipeline.

Over this Parliament, we have committed to open at least 500 new free schools.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-capacity-academic-year-2013-to-2014

[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/primary-school-places-local-authority-basic-need-scorecards-2014

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-01-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the potential effects of plans to restrict housing benefit for 18 to 21 year olds on those people; and which groups of young people will be exempted from those restrictions.

Justin Tomlinson

Removal of automatic housing support for 18 – 21 year olds, announced in the Summer Budget 2015, will be introduced in April 2017. The Department is liaising with a range of key stakeholders as we develop the detail of the policy. Once this work has been completed we will bring forward detailed proposals.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that local authorities, free schools and academies uphold the Armed Forces Covenant in relation to school admissions.

Nick Gibb

All admission authorities and local authorities have a legal duty to comply with the School Admissions Code, which in response to the Armed Forces Covenant, includes a number of provisions intended to ensure that children of UK service personnel are not disadvantaged as a result of their mobility when applying for a school place.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-04-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 12 April 2016 to Question 32243, how many investigations her Department has carried out into cases where schools or early years settings have been accused of refusing to accept disabled children in each year since 2010; and what the outcomes of those investigations were.

Edward Timpson

If it is considered that a child or young person may have been refused admission to a school because of a disability, a claim for disability discrimination can be made to the First-tier Tribunal for Special Educational Needs and Disability. The latest Disability Discrimination Statistics are available on GOV.UK[1].

Claims for disability discrimination against early years settings are heard by the county courts.

In 2014, 27,140 new statements or EHC plans were issued[2] and, in total, there are currently 240,185[3] children and young people with statements or EHC plans. Since 2013, the Department has received around 25 requests for an SEN determination about school admissions each year, although only three have resulted in directions to admit. In order to protect the identity of the child, we are unable to give details of these.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/483768/tribunals-send-tables.xlsx

[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statements-of-sen-and-ehc-plans-england-2015 (Table 2)

[3] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statements-of-sen-and-ehc-plans-england-2015 (Table 1)

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-04-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of free schools not originally opened as a trust subsequently joined multi-academy trusts since 2010.

Edward Timpson

Six free schools which originally opened as a single academy trust have joined a multi-academy trust since 2010.

53% of open free schools are part of a multi-academy trust.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of pupils in local authority maintained schools have (a) statements of special educational needs and (b) Education, Health and Care plans.

Edward Timpson

Information on the number and percentage of pupils with statements of special educational needs or Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan by type of institution in the January 2015 School Census is available on GOV.UK:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england-january-2015 (Table 1A and 1D.)

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the budget is for the National Schools Commissioner Roadshow during June and July 2016.

Nick Gibb

The cost of the nine National Schools Commissioner Roadshows during June and July 2016 will be met from within Schools Commissioner’s Group (SCG) allocated programme budget. The programme budget is to cover the costs related to events and other communications activities. For the 2016/17 financial year, this budget is £425k.

It is expected that approximately 1,500 system leaders will attend the nine National Schools Commissioner Roadshows taking place in June and July 2016.

There was no specific allocation made for travel and subsistence costs for officials related to the National Schools Commissioner Roadshows during June and July 2016. These costs will be met from within SCG allocated administrative budget.

An official in each of the RSC offices has been involved in organising the nine National Schools Commissioners roadshows, supported by a lead in SCG. We expect approximately five officials to attend each roadshow, plus the National Schools Commissioner and the relevant Regional School Commissioner (RSC).

There has been no budget allocated to advertising the National Schools Commissioner Roadshows.