Show Search Form

Search Results

registered interest	true false
date	exactly: or between: and
answering body
answering dept id
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name
hansard heading
house id
legislature	pref label
question text
tabling member constituency
tabling member printed
uin
answer	is ministerial correction true false date of answer exactly: or between: and answer text answering member constituency answering member printed grouped question UIN question first answered answering member label attachment file name title
tabling member	label

Search

1236517

	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/09/2020 answer text <p>The most recent figures for the number of pupils eligible for and claiming free school meals is based on the school census for January 2020. The number of children eligible for and claiming FSM in January 2020, by major ethnic group and for Vauxhall constituency, London and England, are provided in the attached table. Education and free school meal provision is a devolved responsibility, so figures for the United Kingdom are not available.</p><p>Further information can be found in the annual 'Schools, pupils and their characteristics' publication, available at:<br><a href="https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics" target="_blank">https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics</a>.</p> answering member constituency Chelmsford answering member printed Vicky Ford question first answered 22/09/2020 16:54:48 answering member 4674 label Biography information for Vicky Ford attachment 1 file name 91750 table showing pupils from major ethnic groups eligible for free school meals in 2020.doc title 91750 Table Attachment

1241394

	registered interest
	date	07/10/2020
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Children: Day Care
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of Sate for Education, what assessment she has made of (a) the level of childcare provision available during the covid-19 outbreak; and what assessment she has made of the effect of available childcare on the number of mothers taking redundancy since March 2020 to date.
	tabling member constituency	Bristol South
	tabling member printed	Karin Smyth
	uin	100458
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/10/2020 answer text <p>Since April 2020, we have been collecting weekly data from all English local authorities to monitor the availability of early years childcare. We collect and publish information on the number of open and closed early years providers as well as the number of children attending. This information contributes to our regular publication, ‘Attendance in education and early years settings during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak’, which is available here:<br> <a href="https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/attendance-in-education-and-early-years-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak" target="_blank">https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/attendance-in-education-and-early-years-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak</a>.</p><p>Term-time attendance at early years settings has been increasing since September. On a typical day in the autumn term, we estimate attendance to be around 887,000 children, due to different and part-time patterns of childcare during the week. We estimate that 753,000 children attended early years settings on 8 October, which is approximately 85% of the usual daily level, and an increase of almost 340,000 from at the end of the summer term. 80% of early years settings were estimated to be open on 8 October.</p><p>From 4 July, wraparound childcare providers and other providers of out-of-school activities have been able to care for all children, with protective measures in place. We have published further updated guidance for providers who run before and after-school clubs, tuition and other out-of-school settings for children on the protective measures that should be put in place to ensure they are operating as safely as possible. This is also to ensure that with the introduction of our new local COVID-19 alert levels, that wraparound childcare is able to remain open, to support parents to continue to work. The guidance is available here:<br> <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/protective-measures-for-holiday-or-after-school-clubs-and-other-out-of-school-settings-for-children-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak/protective-measures-for-out-of-school-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/protective-measures-for-holiday-or-after-school-clubs-and-other-out-of-school-settings-for-children-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak/protective-measures-for-out-of-school-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak</a>.</p><p>We also know that many schools operate their own breakfast and after school clubs, and they should be working to resume this provision, if they have not already. As part of our guidance to schools on full opening, we have provided schools with guidance to support them in reopening this valuable provision. The guidance is available here:<br> <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools</a>.</p><p>The department does not hold information on the reasons for redundancy. However, the poll of 1000 parents of 0-4 year old children in May 2020 showed only 7% of critical worker families disagree that ‘the hours their child(ren) can access childcare or school at the time of the poll fits with the working hours of the adults in the household’. Of all parents surveyed who previously used childcare and were not intending to return to formal childcare after the wider reopening on 1 June, only 6% said this was because their usual provider or school was remaining closed and 4% stated their child’s usual provider is only open for some children and their child is not eligible. More details on the poll are available here:<br> <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/parents-0-4-year-olds-and-childcare-1st-june-2020" target="_blank">https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/parents-0-4-year-olds-and-childcare-1st-june-2020</a>.</p> answering member constituency Chelmsford answering member printed Vicky Ford question first answered 16/10/2020 15:30:22 answering member 4674 label Biography information for Vicky Ford
	tabling member	4444 label Biography information for Karin Smyth

1234181

	registered interest
	date	14/09/2020
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Universities: Sanitary Products
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Eduaction, what plans his Department has to work with the university sector to introduce free sanitary products on campuses.
	tabling member constituency	South Leicestershire
	tabling member printed	Alberto Costa
	uin	89750
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/09/2020 answer text <p>On 20 January 2020, the department launched a new scheme which makes free period products available for state-funded primary schools, secondary schools and colleges in England. The scheme remained in operation during partial school and college closures, and these organisations are still able to order a range of period products and distribute them to learners.</p><p>Higher education providers such as universities are autonomous bodies, independent from the government. It is for each individual provider to make their own decisions about how best to support their students. However, many providers may choose to provide certain services to support inclusion.</p> answering member constituency Chelmsford answering member printed Vicky Ford question first answered 30/09/2020 12:04:43 answering member 4674 label Biography information for Vicky Ford
	tabling member	4439 label Biography information for Alberto Costa

1220405

	registered interest
	date	02/07/2020
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Free School Meals: Voucher Schemes
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions he has had with Edenred on providing technical support to families trying to access and use vouchers for the Covid Summer Food Fund throughout the summer holidays.
	tabling member constituency	Hampstead and Kilburn
	tabling member printed	Tulip Siddiq
	uin	68393
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/07/2020 answer text <p>Provision for free school meals is ordinarily term time only. However, owing to the COVID-19 outbreak the government understands that children and parents face an entirely unprecedented situation over the summer. To reflect this, we will be providing additional funding for a COVID Summer Food Fund which will enable families with children who are eligible for benefits-related free school meals to receive food vouchers covering the six-week holiday period. Our guidance on the COVID Summer Food Fund is available here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/covid-summer-food-fund" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/guidance/covid-summer-food-fund</a>.</p><p>Through the COVID Summer Food Fund, schools can support eligible pupils with a £90 voucher to cover the six-week holiday period. Schools must order the vouchers at least one week before their school term ends, and they will be issued to families within 7 days. This is in recognition that school offices will be closed in the summer holidays. If a school receives a claim for an eligible child during the final week before the school’s summer holidays, it will be possible for the school to place an exceptional order for that child via our supplier Edenred.</p><p>Customer service support will continue to be available throughout the summer holidays.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Chelmsford answering member printed Vicky Ford question first answered 07/07/2020 16:46:57 answering member 4674 label Biography information for Vicky Ford
	tabling member	4518 label Biography information for Tulip Siddiq

1277621

	registered interest
	date	18/01/2021
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Coronavirus Workforce Fund for Schools: Pre-school Education
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reason (a) nurseries and (b) early years providers have been excluded from the Coronavirus Workforce Fund available to schools.
	tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Selly Oak
	tabling member printed	Steve McCabe
	uin	138860
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/01/2021 answer text <p>The Coronavirus Workforce Fund, available last term, was implemented to support schools and colleges with exceptionally high staff absence rates and significant financial pressures to remain open. Instead, the early years sector has benefitted from the continuation of early years entitlement funding during the COVID-19 outbreak. As private nurseries typically rely on private income for a significant proportion of their income - unlike most state-funded schools - they are also able to furlough their staff via the Coronavirus Jobs Retention Scheme, which has also been available for maintained nursery schools. Eligible nurseries have also benefitted from a business rates holiday and access to business loans, as set out by my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Chelmsford answering member printed Vicky Ford question first answered 25/01/2021 18:10:51 answering member 4674 label Biography information for Vicky Ford
	tabling member	298 label Biography information for Steve McCabe

1253939

	registered interest
	date	19/11/2020
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Children in Care: Ethnic Groups
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reason black children are disproportionately represented in the care system.
	tabling member constituency	Hampstead and Kilburn
	tabling member printed	Tulip Siddiq
	uin	118056
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/11/2020 answer text <p>The Main report: children looked after in England including adoption 2018 to 2019 notes that<em> </em>as of the 31 March 2019 there were 78,150 children looked after in England. The majority are of white ethnicity (74%). 10% were of mixed ethnicity and 8% were of Black or Black British ethnicity. Since 2015, the proportion of children looked after of white ethnicity has decreased steadily from 77%. It is likely this slight change is due to the broadly non-white make up of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, a group which has recently grown in number: <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/850306/Children_looked_after_in_England_2019_Text.pdf" target="_blank">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/850306/Children_looked_after_in_England_2019_Text.pdf</a>.</p><p>As of 31 March 2019 there were 5,070 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children looked after by local authorities in England, up 11% from 4,480 at 31 March 2018. In March 2019, unaccompanied asylum-seeking children represented 6% of all looked after children in England.</p><p>Factors which drive children’s social care activity are complex and the department is keen to understand this in more depth.</p> answering member constituency Chelmsford answering member printed Vicky Ford question first answered 27/11/2020 11:55:08 answering member 4674 label Biography information for Vicky Ford
	tabling member	4518 label Biography information for Tulip Siddiq

1279856

	registered interest
	date	25/01/2021
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Free School Meals: Voucher Schemes
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reason colleges are neither eligible to access the £15-a-week national voucher scheme, nor the £15 weekly payment available to schools for the provision of locally-arranged food vouchers for Free School Meals students during the covid-19 outbreak.
	tabling member constituency	Bolton South East
	tabling member printed	Yasmin Qureshi
	uin	142884
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/02/2021 answer text <p>Further education (FE) institutions should continue to provide support for students who are eligible for free meals, whether they are attending or studying remotely due to the COVID-19 outbreak.</p><p>Institutions should continue to provide support in the most appropriate way based on their local circumstances, and FE providers can use their FE Free Meals allocation flexibly with their discretionary 16-19 Bursary Fund allocation. The Education and Skills Funding Agency expects that a meal, voucher or credit will be provided to eligible students. However, this may not be practical in some situations and institutions are permitted to make cash payments to students in exceptional circumstances.</p><p>As was the case over Christmas, vulnerable families will continue to receive meals and other essentials over February half term via councils through the £170 million Covid Winter Grant Scheme launched last year.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Chelmsford answering member printed Vicky Ford question first answered 01/02/2021 16:24:26 answering member 4674 label Biography information for Vicky Ford
	tabling member	3924 label Biography information for Yasmin Qureshi

1275388

	registered interest
	date	11/01/2021
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Nurseries: Coronavirus
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reason nursery providers are not included in his Department's lateral flow testing programme to support covid-19 testing to detect asymptomatic cases; and if he will make it his policy to include nursery providers in that programme.
	tabling member constituency	York Central
	tabling member printed	Rachael Maskell
	uin	135993
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/01/2021 answer text <p>Rapid, regular testing for people without symptoms of COVID-19 has been made available across the country from week commencing 11 Jan with the eligibility of the community testing programme expanded to cover all 317 local authorities.</p><p>The best way currently for those in private early years settings and childminders to access asymptomatic testing is via the community testing programme.  Local authorities have been encouraged to target testing at critical workers such as early years staff during the national lockdown.  We continue to look at more direct approaches.</p><p>We are rolling out our asymptomatic testing programme to primary schools, who will receive testing kits for staff this week. This includes schools-based nurseries and maintained nursery schools. The asymptomatic testing programme will offer all primary school, schools-based nursery and maintained nursery school staff home Lateral Flow Device (LFD) test kits for routine testing.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Chelmsford answering member printed Vicky Ford question first answered 19/01/2021 15:06:08 answering member 4674 label Biography information for Vicky Ford
	tabling member	4471 label Biography information for Rachael Maskell

1197722

	registered interest
	date	20/05/2020
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Free School Meals: Coronavirus
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reason schools that are able to reclaim the costs of making alternative arrangements to the National Voucher Scheme to provide free school meal vouchers are required to draw on the Emergency Fund that is capped dependent on the size of the school; and whether he plans to allocate additional funding to schools where the costs of (a) free school meal vouchers and (b) other covid-related emergency costs exceed the limit placed on their Emergency Funds.
	tabling member constituency	Cambridge
	tabling member printed	Daniel Zeichner
	uin	49713
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/06/2020 answer text <p>We are providing additional funding to schools, on top of their existing budgets, to cover unavoidable costs incurred due to the COVID-19 outbreak that cannot be met from their existing resources. The fund is targeted towards the costs we have identified as the biggest barrier to schools during the period of partial closure, including providing free school meals to eligible children who are not in school where the national voucher scheme is not appropriate.</p><p>As this funding relates to several categories of exceptional costs that schools may face it is reasonable to limit the overall amount that each individual school can claim for all of these costs together to make sure public funding is spent appropriately.</p><p>Where schools have exceptional circumstances, we will consider extending limits on a case by case basis. This is set out in the guidance on the fund. We will continue to review the scope of the fund and the overall support available as the COVID-19 outbreak develops.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Chelmsford answering member printed Vicky Ford question first answered 08/06/2020 12:26:42 answering member 4674 label Biography information for Vicky Ford
	tabling member	4382 label Biography information for Daniel Zeichner

1198111

	registered interest
	date	01/06/2020
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Free School Meals: Coronavirus
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reason schools with a budget surplus in the current financial year are not able to reclaim the costs of providing free school meal vouchers to eligible students where it has not been possible for them to use the National Voucher Scheme; and what assessment he has made of the effect of that policy on schools that have a budget surplus with a high number of children eligible for free school meals.
	tabling member constituency	Cambridge
	tabling member printed	Daniel Zeichner
	uin	52053
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/06/2020 answer text <p>Schools will continue to receive their budgets for the coming year, as usual. We are providing additional funding to schools, on top of their existing budgets, to cover unavoidable costs incurred due to the COVID-19 outbreak that cannot be met from their existing resources.</p><p> </p><p>It is reasonable for taxpayers to expect that further public funding through this period is not adding to existing surpluses that are held by schools. In this context, schools are not eligible to make a claim for additional funding if they expect to be able to add to their existing historic surpluses in their current financial year, regardless of their school context or pupil characteristics.</p><p> </p><p>However, schools are eligible for reimbursement where the additional costs associated with COVID-19 would result in a school having to use historic surpluses; would increase the size of a historic deficit; or prevent the planned repayment of a historic deficit.</p><p> </p><p>Where schools have exceptional circumstances, we will consider extending limits on a case by case basis. This is set out in the guidance on the fund which is available here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-financial-support-for-schools/school-funding-exceptional-costs-associated-with-coronavirus-covid-19-for-the-period-march-to-july-2020" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-financial-support-for-schools/school-funding-exceptional-costs-associated-with-coronavirus-covid-19-for-the-period-march-to-july-2020</a>.</p> answering member constituency Chelmsford answering member printed Vicky Ford grouped question UIN 52054 52055 question first answered 09/06/2020 12:28:33 answering member 4674 label Biography information for Vicky Ford
	tabling member	4382 label Biography information for Daniel Zeichner