Tag: Royston Smith

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that supply teachers are trained to an appropriate standard in the subjects they teach.

Nick Gibb

The qualifications of supply teachers are currently governed by the same regulations as teachers employed by schools.

In maintained schools, teachers must hold Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) except those who satisfy the requirements for non-qualified teachers to carry out specified work set out in the Education (Specified Work) (England) Regulations 2012, for example, instructors with special qualifications or experience. Academies and Free Schools can employ teaching staff without the automatic requirement for them to hold QTS. This applies equally to supply teachers and teachers employed by schools.

To be awarded QTS, a teacher must demonstrate that they meet all of the Teachers’ Standards at the appropriate level. This includes a requirement to “demonstrate good subject and curriculum knowledge” and to have “a secure knowledge of the relevant subject(s) and curriculum areas” relevant to their teaching.

Our recent White Paper, Educational Excellence Everywhere, set out our proposals to reform the way in which teachers qualify, by replacing the existing arrangements for QTS with a new, more challenging accreditation. This will be based on a teacher’s demonstration of proficiency in the classroom over a sustained period, rather than being awarded at the end of initial teacher training. It will require teachers to demonstrate advanced subject knowledge and an awareness of how evidence and research should inform effective teaching practice. The award of the new qualification will be confirmed by heads of some of our best schools, ensuring the consistency and quality of teacher accreditation. We will be publishing further information about how we intend to implement this reform in due course.

Head teachers are, and will remain, responsible for the employment of teaching staff in their schools; this includes satisfying themselves that the teacher is suitably qualified, and providing appropriate training opportunities.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 16 March 2016 to Question 30139, what steps she plans to take to expand grant funding projects to other local authorities to support young carers under the age of 16, similar to that provided by Suffolk family carers.

Edward Timpson

My Department will make decisions about grant funding for further work to support young carers on the basis of:

• the quantitative research report on young carers in England;

• the evaluation reports of the programmes of work carried out by Suffolk Family Carers and Carers Trust; and

• evidence submitted to the Government’s carers strategy call for evidence https://consultations.dh.gov.uk/carers/how-can-we-improve-support-for-carers

The research and evaluation reports are due this year.

“

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-04-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of adults in Southampton have been diagnosed with dementia in each of the last 10 years.

Jane Ellison

Information is not available in the format requested.

The number of people recorded on the practice dementia disease register is available in the Quality and Outcomes Framework, published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre, from 2006/07, when dementia indicators were introduced into the framework. The proportion of patients diagnosed is not available but the numbers of people on the dementia register are available. This is a measure of prevalence rather than incidence.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-04-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he plans to take to provide information to enable future planning by supported housing providers during the next 12 months.

Brandon Lewis

The supported housing sector provides valuable support to some of our country’s most vulnerable people and we recognise the important role that it plays.

We are currently undertaking an evidence review of the supported housing sector, which is due to report shortly. We will work with the sector as part of developing a long-term sustainable funding regime.

In the meantime, we have put in place a one-year exception for all supported accommodation from the social rent reduction policy and from the Local Housing Allowance cap.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-06-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the Government’s policy is on the use of child advocates to support social workers working with unaccompanied migrant children.

Karen Bradley

Unaccompanied migrant children are looked after by local authorities, which provide social work support and access to legal representation. Such children are also referred to the Refugee Council’s Children’s Panel for specialist support.

In addition, the Government ran a trial of independent child trafficking advocates from 8 September 2014 for a period of 12 months across 23 local authorities in England. The trial provided a valuable contribution to our understanding of this area of work and we are currently working with a broad range of interested parties as well as Parliamentarians to further develop our thinking so that we ensure we support trafficked children appropriately. We will update Parliament in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-06-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many patients are supported by (a) NHS West London, (b) NHS North Manchester and (c) West Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group.

Alistair Burt

The number of registered patients in each of the specified clinical commissioning group (CCG) areas as at 1 April 2016 is shown in the following table.

CCG	Number of registered patients
NHS West London	242,428
NHS North Manchester	206,140
NHS West Hampshire	553,237

Source: Information extracted on a quarterly basis from the General Practice payments system, which is maintained by the Health and Social Care Information Centre.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-07-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what progress has been made on giving housing association tenants whose tenancies are defined as market rental the right to buy.

Gavin Barwell

The voluntary Right to Buy will give 1.3 million housing association tenants the opportunity to purchase a home. We are currently working with the National Housing Federation and the housing association sector on the implementation of the main scheme and will announce more details in due course.

As is set out in the voluntary agreement, the scheme will apply to those housing association tenants who live in a social or affordable rented home.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the proportion of people working in (a) law, (b) journalism, (c) politics, (d) medicine and (e) other professions who attended (i) selective and (ii) non-selective schools.

Nick Gibb

The Department does not hold this information.

The Sutton Trust has looked at this matter as part of its Leading People study, which can be viewed on its website.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-01-13.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress he has made on analysis of responses to the pension transfers and early exit charges consultation, launched by his Department in July 2015; and when he plans to publish the response to the consultation.

Greg Hands

On Tuesday 19 January, the Chancellor announced his intention to legislate to place a duty on the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to cap excessive early exit charges for those eligible to access the pension freedoms. This new duty will form part of the response to the government’s Pension Transfers and Early Exit Charges consultation, and will help people take full advantage of the pension freedoms. The government will be publishing its full response to this consultation shortly.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Prime Minister’s announcement of 10 January 2016, Prime Minister pledges to transform sink estates, by what process local authorities will be able to obtain funding for estates regeneration under that initiative.

Brandon Lewis

The Government issued a Statement on 23 February, inviting expressions of interest from prospective estates across the country and enabling us to engage with prospective schemes. A more formal arrangement for accessing the £140 million loan fund, and for assessing bids into that fund, will be set in train in due course. The Statement can be accessed at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/estates-regeneration-statement

“