Tag: Lord Ouseley

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-03-21.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what quality of education criteria and evidence of education achievement levels have been considered to justify the proposed academisation of schools.

Lord Nash

The plan for all schools to become academies forms part of our recent White Paper, Educational Excellence Everywhere. Our focus is on increasing the quality of education and ensuring that schools are able to raise standards and deliver the best outcomes for children.

The academies programme is already helping to turn around struggling schools while offering our best schools the freedom to excel. Results from 2015 show that primary sponsored academies open for two years have improved their results by an average of 10 percentage points since opening. This is more than double the rate of improvement in local authority maintained schools over the same period. In addition, the 2015 GCSE results show that secondary converter academies are outperforming the national average and, despite starting from a high bar, show continued improvement.

Indeed, as Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector (HMCI) set out in the latest Ofsted annual report, academisation can lead to rapid improvements. In his letter of 10 March 2016 to the Secretary of State, HMCI also confirmed his belief that it is right to give greater autonomy to the front line and that there are some excellent multi-academy trusts that have made remarkable progress in some of the toughest areas of the country.

It is through the academies programme that we are giving more power, responsibility and freedoms directly to education professionals, who know what is best for their pupils, but within a strong framework of accountability. Academies working together in Multi-Academy Trusts are achieving substantial benefits from economies of scale, consistent practices, substantially enhanced career and leadership development opportunities for their staff and many others.

In addition, the international evidence shows that autonomy for schools, with strong leadership and accountability in place, is linked to improved performance. A PISA in Focus study from 2011, for example, concluded “it is a combination of several autonomy and accountability policies, not just a single, isolated policy that is related to better student outcomes”.

A fully academised schools system, in which great teachers and leaders are able to spread their influence, strong multi-academy trusts can grow, and underperformance is swiftly tackled, will help ensure that every child receives an excellent education.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-09-05.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many youth centres have been closed since 2010 and what assessment they have made of the impact of those closures on young people.

Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen

It is the responsibility of local authorities to decide how to allocate funding for youth services, according to local need. Individual local authorities would be best placed to advise on any changes there have been to the number of youth centres in their local area.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-01-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what guidance they give to academies about having education, health and care plans in order to stop them from turning away children with special needs.

Lord Nash

It is vital that young people with special education needs and disabilities (SEND) are supported throughout their education so that they develop the knowledge and skills they need to fulfil their potential.

The School Admissions Code ensures that academies operate a fair admissions policy for all children with SEND. Section 1.8 of that Code requires admission authorities to ‘ensure that their arrangements will not disadvantage unfairly, either directly or indirectly, a child from a particular social or racial group, or a child with a disability or special educational needs.’ These provisions apply to admission authorities for all state-funded mainstream schools, including academies.

Once a school (of any type) is open, anyone can object to the Schools Adjudicator if its admission policy breaches these requirements. This is in addition to their right to seek redress through the courts for any breach of equalities legislation, since disability is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010. Parents also have the right to refer disability discrimination cases to the First Tier Tribunal (SEN & Disability) to seek redress if their issues cannot be resolved locally.

In addition, all schools, including academies, must adhere to the statutory guidance, the ‘Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice: 0-25 years’.

The Code of Practice is clear that parents are asked to express a preference for a school, as part of the process for agreeing an education and health care (EHC) plan for their child. The local authority must name the parents’ preferred school in the EHC plan, unless it is unsuitable for the child’s age, aptitude, ability and special educational needs; or if placing the child at the preferred school would be incompatible with the efficient education of others or the efficient use of the authority’s resources. The local authority must consult the school before naming it in the EHC plan.

If an academy is named in an EHC plan, it is obliged to admit that child or young person.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-04-12.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the reasons why school pupils self-harm, and what measures they propose to tackle that problem.

Lord Nash

Good mental health and wellbeing is a key priority for this Department. We have high aspirations for all children and want them to be able to fulfil their potential both academically and in terms of their mental wellbeing.

Self-harm occurs in relation to a wide range of personal problems, emotional turmoil and psychiatric disorders. The Department of Health commissions the MultiCentre Study on self-harm. This provides essential information on self-harm in the population to inform clinical responses and preventative activity. New data coming on stream through the Public Health Outcomes Framework and the forthcoming prevalence survey for children and young people will help to further improve this assessment and treatment.

To help schools to draw on specialist support where needed, we have contributed to a £3m joint pilot between schools and specialist mental health services, to test single points of contact in schools and mental health services.

While teachers are not mental health specialists, schools can play an important role in building good mental wellbeing and supporting pupils where they have issues. We have taken a range of actions to help them to build a whole-school approach to good mental wellbeing. We funded guidance and age-appropriate lesson plans on teaching mental health in PSHE – which covers teaching about self-harm; training for teachers on self-harm is available through MindEd, a free online portal which has been developed to enable all adults working with children and young people learn more about specific mental health problems and how to support them.

We have also recently revised and updated our blueprint for effective school-based counselling. This provides practical, evidence-based advice, informed by experts on how to ensure school based counselling services achieve the best outcomes for all students, including vulnerable children and young people.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-09-05.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many youth service staff posts have been removed since 2010 and what assessment have they made of the affect of the reduced provision for young people.

Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen

It is the responsibility of local authorities to decide how to allocate funding for youth services and as part of this, youth service staff posts, according to local need. There is an existing statutory duty on local authorities through Education Act 2006 (Section 507B) to secure, as far as is practicable, sufficient services and activities to improve the wellbeing of young people. Individual local authorities would be best placed to advise on any changes there have been to the number of youth service staff posts in their local area.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-01-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the Prime Minister’s commitment to tackle race inequality in the labour market, what action they propose to end the current situation identified by the Resolution Foundation that the black and minority ethnic group find it twice as hard to secure employment as their white counterparts.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

The Equality Act 2010 protects all individuals against racial and other forms of discrimination in the workplace. The Prime Minister has underlined the Government’s commitments to increasing racial diversity in the workplace in his 2020 Vision in which he made a commitment to increase BAME employment by 20% by 2020. The Government is aware of the forthcoming report by the Resolution Foundation and will study its recommendations carefully when it is published.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-04-12.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what support they will provide for 16 to 18 year olds who are not in higher education or apprenticeships to ensure they have an effective and successful transition from school into the workplace.

Lord Nash

Support is available for all 16 to 18-year olds whether they are making a transition into employment, ongoing education, or a combination. Local authorities are required to track and support young people, and in doing so they work closely with education and training providers, employers, the Voluntary and Community Sector, and other agencies.

Schools and colleges have a duty to secure independent careers guidance to young people. The Careers & Enterprise Company has been established to help ensure young people get the inspiration and guidance they need to leave school or college ready to succeed in working life.

Specialist support is provided to vulnerable young people such as Care Leavers and those who are under the supervision of a Youth Offending Team, and any 16 to 18-year olds who claim benefits are supported into employment or education by staff at Job Centre Plus offices. The government has also allocated £30m for the Youth Engagement Fund and Fair Chance Fund Social Impact Bond (SIB) schemes which provide support to vulnerable young people.

We are looking to improve the quality of the destinations data by linking it to employment and benefits data. This data will enable us to improve the robustness and coverage of NEET destination data and monitor the impact of our policies.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-09-05.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what purpose is served by the National Citizen Service; who benefits from its provision; and what diversity data is available relating to that service.

Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen

NCS was created to help build a more responsible, more cohesive, more engaged society. The government is committed to providing a place on NCS for every young person who wants one.

Social mix is at the core of National Citizen Service and all young people, regardless of background, are supported to take part in the programme.

In 2014, 17% of NCS participants were eligible for free school meals, compared with around 8% of young people of the same age in the general population.

The national picture of NCS shows that young people from disadvantaged and minority ethnic backgrounds are well represented. The latest evaluation showed that 30% of NCS participants were from Black, Mixed or Asian backgrounds compared with 19% of the general population.

The 2014 evaluation demonstrates that NCS graduates are more confident leaders and decision-makers. 7 in 10 NCS graduates felt more confident about getting a job, and more than 9 in 10 graduates felt NCS helped them develop useful skills for the future. Data from the summer 2014 programme showed that participants who were eligible for free school meals generally showed larger increases in personal resilience than others.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-01-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the Ofsted report highlighting a 60 per cent increase in the number of children who have died as a result of abuse and neglect in the past year.

Lord Nash

The death of any child is a tragedy. We want all children at risk of abuse or neglect to be identified early, to have timely and proportionate assessments of their individual needs, and to have the right services provided at the right time.

The Ofsted statistical release, Serious Incident Notifications from local authority children’s services 2015, reports a 17 percent increase in the number of cases of child death being notified to Ofsted compared to the previous year. The rise in numbers of deaths reported to Ofsted does not necessarily indicate a rise in the number of child deaths. The official figures for the number of child deaths in 2014-2015 will be published by Office for National Statistics (ONS) later in the year.

The Ofsted statistical release contains experimental data, based on information supplied by local authorities about serious incident notifications. What constitutes a serious incident is set out in statutory guidance, Working Together 2015. The Ofsted report is just one of a range of data sources relating to serious incidents involving children. It is not, however, the official source of data on child deaths, which is collected by the ONS. The Government also publishes reviews of homicide and child deaths, which together enable a more accurate assessment of the number and causes of child death.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-04-12.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they propose to take to prevent mental health services from turning away children who seek help.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Children and young people’s mental health (CYPMH) is a priority area for this Government. It is committed to delivering the vision set out in Future in mind, the previous Government’s report on the work of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Taskforce. This report established a clear and powerful consensus about change across the whole system, including health, social care and education. To support this transformation programme the Government is committed to making an additional £1.4 billion available over the course of this Parliament.

As a first step in this transformation programme all clinical commissioning groups working with their partners, have developed Local Transformation Plans to transform their offer for children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing. These plans cover the full spectrum of mental health issues: from prevention and improving access, to support and care for existing and emerging mental health problems, as well as transitions between services.

Whilst the intention is to prevent mental health problems from arising in the first place, improving access for those who have developed problems as early as possible is essential. By 2020, at least 70,000 more children and young people each year will have access to high quality mental health care when they need it. This will require systems for rapid identification of children in need of specialised services, and improved links between different agencies so that children and young people are referred to the most appropriate service. £28 million is being spent on extending and expanding the Children and Young People’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme so that by 2018 all children and young people across England will have access to evidence-based and appropriate interventions. The Government has also invested nearly £3 million into the Mental Health Services and Schools Links Pilots to jointly train designated leads in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and schools to improve access to mental health services for children and young people. This should reduce the number of children being turned away from services and lead to the ‘no wrong door’ approach that is integral to the transformation programme.