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1383897

	registered interest
	date	01/12/2021
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Further Education: Finance
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the impact that the outbreak of covid-19 has had on the lagged funding mechanism used by the Education and Skills Funding Agency; and what impact that methodology has had on the Further Education sector.
	tabling member constituency	Bradford South
	tabling member printed	Judith Cummins
	uin	85293
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/12/2021 answer text <p>The potential impact of the COVID-19 outbreak was taken into consideration when making some changes to the lagged funding mechanism for 16 to 19 education. When calculating 16 to 19 education funding allocations for 2021 to 2022, we applied an average retention factor for each provider, rather than using data from 2019 to 2020. Our intention was to provide a retention factor for 2021 to 2022 allocations that was not affected by the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. In addition, we changed how we calculated exceptional in year Growth funding, making it more responsive to the increase in students from Autumn 2020. This helped providers with the costs of student number growth, in year.</p><p>The department also provided specific interventions to help young people in the circumstances of the COVID-19 outbreak. For example, we introduced the 16-19 Tuition Fund aimed at helping colleges and other providers to give prompt support to young people who needed it. It also designed a one year offer for 18- and 19-year-olds who were due to leave school or college in the summer of 2020. This funding helped providers to offer courses of up to one year duration in high value subjects to enable young people, who would otherwise have moved into apprenticeships or employment, to continue in education if work-based opportunities were not available to them.</p><p>In the academic year 2018/19, the total amount of 16 to 19 programme funding was £5,132 million, with an average funding per student of £4,504[1]. By the academic year 2021/22 the total amount 16 to 19 programme funding had increased to £5,881 million with an average funding per student of £4,994[1]. This followed an increase in funding rates paid for in the 2019 and 2020 spending rounds.</p><p>We are committed to investing in 16 to 19 education to ensure every young person has access to an excellent education, and to ensuring the further education sector can play its part in that and in developing adult skills, which requires it to be financially sustainable. The 2021 Spending Review has made available an extra £1.6 billion per year for 16-19 education in 2024-25 compared with financial year 2021-22. This will fully fund the additional students we anticipate in the system, pay for the increasing take-up of T Levels, maintain funding per student in real terms, and enable increased time in education for all 16 to 19 year-olds. The department will set out details of how this additional funding will be allocated in due course.</p><p>The Education and Skills Funding Agency will continue to work with further education and sixth form colleges to monitor and support their financial sustainability.</p><p>[1] This calculation is based on published allocations, taking the amount of Total Programme Funding allocated, divided by the total number of students in each academic year, at providers receiving programme funding. Some institutions receive only high needs funding, and their students are not included in this calculation.</p> answering member constituency Brentwood and Ongar answering member printed Alex Burghart grouped question UIN 85294 85295 question first answered 07/12/2021 15:26:32 answering member 4613 label Biography information for Alex Burghart
	tabling member	4391 label Biography information for Judith Cummins

1383899

	registered interest
	date	01/12/2021
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Education: Finance
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what comparative assessment he has made of funding allocated via EFSA’s lagged funding methodology between the 2021-22 and the 2018-19 academic years.
	tabling member constituency	Bradford South
	tabling member printed	Judith Cummins
	uin	85294
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/12/2021 answer text <p>The potential impact of the COVID-19 outbreak was taken into consideration when making some changes to the lagged funding mechanism for 16 to 19 education. When calculating 16 to 19 education funding allocations for 2021 to 2022, we applied an average retention factor for each provider, rather than using data from 2019 to 2020. Our intention was to provide a retention factor for 2021 to 2022 allocations that was not affected by the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. In addition, we changed how we calculated exceptional in year Growth funding, making it more responsive to the increase in students from Autumn 2020. This helped providers with the costs of student number growth, in year.</p><p>The department also provided specific interventions to help young people in the circumstances of the COVID-19 outbreak. For example, we introduced the 16-19 Tuition Fund aimed at helping colleges and other providers to give prompt support to young people who needed it. It also designed a one year offer for 18- and 19-year-olds who were due to leave school or college in the summer of 2020. This funding helped providers to offer courses of up to one year duration in high value subjects to enable young people, who would otherwise have moved into apprenticeships or employment, to continue in education if work-based opportunities were not available to them.</p><p>In the academic year 2018/19, the total amount of 16 to 19 programme funding was £5,132 million, with an average funding per student of £4,504[1]. By the academic year 2021/22 the total amount 16 to 19 programme funding had increased to £5,881 million with an average funding per student of £4,994[1]. This followed an increase in funding rates paid for in the 2019 and 2020 spending rounds.</p><p>We are committed to investing in 16 to 19 education to ensure every young person has access to an excellent education, and to ensuring the further education sector can play its part in that and in developing adult skills, which requires it to be financially sustainable. The 2021 Spending Review has made available an extra £1.6 billion per year for 16-19 education in 2024-25 compared with financial year 2021-22. This will fully fund the additional students we anticipate in the system, pay for the increasing take-up of T Levels, maintain funding per student in real terms, and enable increased time in education for all 16 to 19 year-olds. The department will set out details of how this additional funding will be allocated in due course.</p><p>The Education and Skills Funding Agency will continue to work with further education and sixth form colleges to monitor and support their financial sustainability.</p><p>[1] This calculation is based on published allocations, taking the amount of Total Programme Funding allocated, divided by the total number of students in each academic year, at providers receiving programme funding. Some institutions receive only high needs funding, and their students are not included in this calculation.</p> answering member constituency Brentwood and Ongar answering member printed Alex Burghart grouped question UIN 85293 85295 question first answered 07/12/2021 15:26:32 answering member 4613 label Biography information for Alex Burghart
	tabling member	4391 label Biography information for Judith Cummins

1383900

	registered interest
	date	01/12/2021
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Further Education: Finance
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to improve the financial sustainability of the further education sector in response to the effect on that sector of Education and Skills Funding Agency lagged funding methodology and the covid-19 outbreak.
	tabling member constituency	Bradford South
	tabling member printed	Judith Cummins
	uin	85295
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/12/2021 answer text <p>The potential impact of the COVID-19 outbreak was taken into consideration when making some changes to the lagged funding mechanism for 16 to 19 education. When calculating 16 to 19 education funding allocations for 2021 to 2022, we applied an average retention factor for each provider, rather than using data from 2019 to 2020. Our intention was to provide a retention factor for 2021 to 2022 allocations that was not affected by the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. In addition, we changed how we calculated exceptional in year Growth funding, making it more responsive to the increase in students from Autumn 2020. This helped providers with the costs of student number growth, in year.</p><p>The department also provided specific interventions to help young people in the circumstances of the COVID-19 outbreak. For example, we introduced the 16-19 Tuition Fund aimed at helping colleges and other providers to give prompt support to young people who needed it. It also designed a one year offer for 18- and 19-year-olds who were due to leave school or college in the summer of 2020. This funding helped providers to offer courses of up to one year duration in high value subjects to enable young people, who would otherwise have moved into apprenticeships or employment, to continue in education if work-based opportunities were not available to them.</p><p>In the academic year 2018/19, the total amount of 16 to 19 programme funding was £5,132 million, with an average funding per student of £4,504[1]. By the academic year 2021/22 the total amount 16 to 19 programme funding had increased to £5,881 million with an average funding per student of £4,994[1]. This followed an increase in funding rates paid for in the 2019 and 2020 spending rounds.</p><p>We are committed to investing in 16 to 19 education to ensure every young person has access to an excellent education, and to ensuring the further education sector can play its part in that and in developing adult skills, which requires it to be financially sustainable. The 2021 Spending Review has made available an extra £1.6 billion per year for 16-19 education in 2024-25 compared with financial year 2021-22. This will fully fund the additional students we anticipate in the system, pay for the increasing take-up of T Levels, maintain funding per student in real terms, and enable increased time in education for all 16 to 19 year-olds. The department will set out details of how this additional funding will be allocated in due course.</p><p>The Education and Skills Funding Agency will continue to work with further education and sixth form colleges to monitor and support their financial sustainability.</p><p>[1] This calculation is based on published allocations, taking the amount of Total Programme Funding allocated, divided by the total number of students in each academic year, at providers receiving programme funding. Some institutions receive only high needs funding, and their students are not included in this calculation.</p> answering member constituency Brentwood and Ongar answering member printed Alex Burghart grouped question UIN 85293 85294 question first answered 07/12/2021 15:26:32 answering member 4613 label Biography information for Alex Burghart
	tabling member	4391 label Biography information for Judith Cummins

1023912

	registered interest
	date	12/12/2018
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Young People: Carers
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to promote flexible and part-time apprenticeships for young carers.
	tabling member constituency	Bradford South
	tabling member printed	Judith Cummins
	uin	201691
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/12/2018 answer text <p>​We know that some people experience barriers to undertaking full-time employment, such as managing caring responsibilities around a full-time role, so we have made it easier for part-time workers to undertake apprenticeships, such as those with caring responsibilities, including young carers and lone parents.</p><p>Our apprenticeships funding rules allow flexible working arrangements. The minimum duration of the apprenticeship can be extended to make sure that working fewer than 30 hours a week is not a barrier to successfully completing an apprenticeship.</p> answering member constituency Guildford answering member printed Anne Milton question first answered 17/12/2018 16:09:26 answering member 1523 label Biography information for Anne Milton
	tabling member	4391 label Biography information for Judith Cummins

1023911

	registered interest
	date	12/12/2018
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	16-19 Bursary Fund: Carers
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of formally identifying young adult carers as a vulnerable group in order to give them full access to the 16-19 bursary.
	tabling member constituency	Bradford South
	tabling member printed	Judith Cummins
	uin	201690
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/12/2018 answer text <p>It is very important that we make sure that young carers can participate in education and receive the support they need. However, financial need will vary significantly from family to family.</p><p>The department keeps under review the use of the 16-19 Bursary Fund to inform our understanding of whether it is providing effective support to our most economically disadvantaged students.</p><p>The defined vulnerable groups eligible for particular support from the 16-19 Bursary Fund are groups that generally do not receive financial support from their families. Young carers can receive help from the discretionary element of the 16-19 Bursary Fund, which is made available to education and training institutions. It is their role to determine which young people need bursaries and the level of financial support required to enable these students to participate.</p><p>Young carers are able to discuss their particular needs with their school or college, which can then provide appropriate individualised support. Government guidance for those institutions is very clear about the need to encourage young carers to apply for the bursary fund, to reassure them about confidentiality and to consider whether they need extra help because of their caring responsibilities. Our view is that institutions are best placed to assess the needs of young carers, rather than making a decision at national level.</p> answering member constituency Guildford answering member printed Anne Milton question first answered 17/12/2018 15:16:54 answering member 1523 label Biography information for Anne Milton
	tabling member	4391 label Biography information for Judith Cummins

1659049

	registered interest
	date	07/09/2023
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Special Educational Needs: Bradford South
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing SEND state school provisions in Bradford South constituency.
	tabling member constituency	Bradford South
	tabling member printed	Judith Cummins
	uin	198348
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/09/2023 answer text <p>The government recognises that there is a growing need for specialist special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision across the country and establishing sufficient school places is one of the government’s top priorities. This is why the department has invested £2.6 billion of high needs capital funding between 2022 and 2025. As well as supporting 41 new special free schools, this will enable local authorities to deliver new places for SEND pupils in mainstream and special schools, as well as other specialist settings, and also to improve the suitability and accessibility of existing buildings. As part of this, the department has published over £1.5 billion of High Needs Provision Capital Allocations for the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years, of which Bradford have been allocated £12.1 million.</p><p>In addition, to support local authorities to manage their specialist provision the department has started to collect data on the capacity of special schools and SEND units/resourced provision in mainstream schools, as well as forecasts of the numbers of specialist placements local authorities expect to make in SEND units/resourced provision, special schools (of all types) and alternative provision. This is expected to be an annual data collection, forming part of the existing School Capacity Survey (SCAP). The department is working closely with local authorities and other sector stakeholders to ensure the data we collect best supports the needs of users across the 0-25 system and will explore options for improving and broadening the data we collect in future years. Guidance on completing the SCAP survey, including tools to support local authorities in assessing the capacity of special schools, is available at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-capacity-survey-guide-for-local-authorities#:~:text=The%20annual%20school%20capacity%20survey%20(%20SCAP%20)%20collects%20information%20on%3A,the%20next%205%20academic%20years" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-capacity-survey-guide-for-local-authorities#:~:text=The%20annual%20school%20capacity%20survey%20(%20SCAP%20)%20collects%20information%20on%3A,the%20next%205%20academic%20years</a>.</p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston question first answered 15/09/2023 13:15:07 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
	tabling member	4391 label Biography information for Judith Cummins

1691088

	registered interest
	date	22/02/2024
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Special Educational Needs: Classroom Assistants
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing funding for SEND teaching assistants in schools.
	tabling member constituency	Bradford South
	tabling member printed	Judith Cummins
	uin	15296
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/03/2024 answer text <p>Many teaching assistants who support pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are partly or wholly funded from local authorities’ high needs budgets, as a result of assessments and consequent decisions about the additional support that those individual pupils need.</p><p> </p><p>The department is increasing high needs funding nationally by £440 million (4.3%) in the 2024/25 financial year. This will bring the total of high needs funding to over £10.5 billion next year, an increase of over 60% from the 2019/20 allocations. Bradford Council is due to receive a high needs funding allocation of £42.2 million through their 2024/25 dedicated schools grant, which is a cumulative increase of 37% per head over the three years from 2021/22.</p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston question first answered 11/03/2024 15:38:33 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
	tabling member	4391 label Biography information for Judith Cummins

1659050

	registered interest
	date	07/09/2023
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Special Educational Needs: Private Education
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of earmarking funding to local authorities for funding SEND school places at independent institutions.
	tabling member constituency	Bradford South
	tabling member printed	Judith Cummins
	uin	198349
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/09/2023 answer text <p>Local authorities have considerable flexibility to use the high needs funding within their Dedicated Schools Grant allocations to fulfil their statutory duties. This includes using their high needs budgets to discharge their special educational needs duties under the Children and Families Act.</p><p>Local authorities are able to fund educational placements for children and young people with Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans in independent schools. Where they choose to name an independent special school on an EHC plan, the local authority must fund the cost of the placement.</p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston question first answered 15/09/2023 13:15:25 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
	tabling member	4391 label Biography information for Judith Cummins

1353605

	registered interest
	date	07/09/2021
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Further Education: Qualifications
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the proposal for the introduction of T-Levels and for subjects where there is no T-Level route, what qualifications will be available; what will be the (a) content and (b) assessment process for those qualifications; and will those qualifications be available for the start of the 2023-24 academic year.
	tabling member constituency	Bradford South
	tabling member printed	Judith Cummins
	uin	44489
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/09/2021 answer text <p>Our final plans setting out the groups of qualifications that will be available alongside T Levels and A levels in future were published on 14 July.</p><p>We will fund two groups of technical qualifications alongside T Levels for 16 to 19 year olds. The first will be qualifications that are designed to enable entry into occupations where there are no T Levels. The second will be qualifications that develop more specialist skills and knowledge than could be acquired through a T Level alone, helping to protect the skills supply into more specialist industries or occupations.</p><p>Adults will be able to study a broader range of technical qualifications than 16 to 19 year olds. T Levels will be available for adults but we believe these should exist alongside a range of other high quality technical qualifications that are backed by employers. This includes smaller technical qualifications that enable entry into occupations that are already served by T Levels, and qualifications focusing on cross-sectoral skills that are transferrable across different occupations such as management, leadership, and digital. Qualifications within safety critical industries will also be available for adults.</p><p>We are phasing the introduction of reformed qualifications in line with the national rollout of T Levels, starting with a single test route (pathfinder) concentrating on the Digital route in the 2023/24 academic year. This means technical qualifications that lead to occupations in the Digital route that are not covered by T Levels will be available for young people and adults from 2023/24.</p><p>From the 2024/25 academic year, building on learning from the pathfinder, we will scale up the introduction of reformed technical qualifications including those which lead to occupations not covered by T Levels in the Education and Childcare, Construction, Health and Science, and Engineering and Manufacturing routes. All remaining technical and academic qualifications for young people and adults, including technical qualifications that lead to occupations in routes where there is no T Level will be introduced in 2025/26.</p><p>Detailed criteria for approval including qualification content and assessment are still in development and we will continue to work with sector experts to finalise these, including the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, Ofqual, employers, awarding organisations and post-16 providers. Guidance, qualification approval criteria and funding approval criteria for qualifications approved for delivery from 2023 will be published later in 2021. Approval criteria for qualifications to be delivered from 2024 and beyond will be published in 2022.</p> answering member constituency Chichester answering member printed Gillian Keegan question first answered 16/09/2021 11:08:50 answering member 4680 label Biography information for Gillian Keegan
	tabling member	4391 label Biography information for Judith Cummins

1352947

	registered interest
	date	06/09/2021
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Vocational Education: Bradford South
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the potential effect on outcomes for students in the Bradford South constituency of his Department's proposed reductions to funding for (a) BTEC and (b) Applied General Qualifications; and what steps he is taking to help ensure that students in that constituency are not disadvantaged by those changes in education funding.
	tabling member constituency	Bradford South
	tabling member printed	Judith Cummins
	uin	43543
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/09/2021 answer text <p>Employers are facing a skills shortage that we must act to address. It is vital in a fast moving and high-tech economy that technical education closes the gap between what people study and the needs of employers. This is why we are introducing over 20 T Levels, developed with 250 leading employers, and reviewing the wider post-16 qualifications system at level 3 and below.</p><p>The department’s plans for reform of level 3 qualifications were published on 14 July 2021. We will continue to fund high quality qualifications that can be taken alongside or as alternatives to T Levels and A levels where there is a clear need for skills and knowledge that T Levels and A levels cannot provide. The future landscape may include some Pearson BTECs and/or qualifications similar to current Applied General qualifications, provided they meet new quality criteria for funding approval.</p><p>The impact assessment published alongside the consultation response recognised that some students may find it more difficult to achieve level 3 qualifications in future. However, the assessment stated that the changes will generally be positive as students will have access to higher quality qualifications in the future, including new T Levels. This will put students in a stronger position to progress onto further study or skilled employment. The assessment acknowledged that students from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to take qualifications that could have their funding approval removed. These students should gain the most from these changes because they are the most likely to be taking qualifications that do not deliver the skills employers need. We are committed to ensuring that T Levels are accessible to all young people and have introduced flexibilities for students with special educational needs and disabilities. The T Level Transition Programme will support young people who are not yet ready to progress to a T Level but have the potential to succeed on it after some further preparation.</p><p>All qualifications will need to meet new quality criteria to be approved for funding in future. Technical qualifications will need to be approved by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (the Institute) to be considered for funding approval. For academic qualifications, the department will set criteria to ensure all qualifications approved for funding are necessary alongside A levels. Ofqual will provide advice about quality to both the Institute and the department. This will ensure that all qualifications are high quality and provide the skills needed to support progression either into skilled employment or further study.</p><p>Alongside our reforms to level 3 qualifications, the department wants to improve study at level 2 and below, which has been neglected for too long. Improving level 2 and below is key to making sure that every student has a clear progression route, whether that is to high quality level 3 qualifications, apprenticeships, traineeships, or directly into skilled employment at level 2. The department is considering feedback to the call for evidence, which ran from 10 November 2020 to 14 February 2021, and there will be consultation on reform proposals later this year.</p> answering member constituency Chichester answering member printed Gillian Keegan question first answered 09/09/2021 11:42:59 answering member 4680 label Biography information for Gillian Keegan
	tabling member	4391 label Biography information for Judith Cummins