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1645626

registered interest
date	19/06/2023
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	English Language: Teachers
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to address recruitment and retention in English teaching.
tabling member constituency	Feltham and Heston
tabling member printed	Seema Malhotra
uin	190098
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/06/2023 answer text <p>There are now over 468,000 full time equivalent (FTE) teachers in state funded schools in England, which is an increase of 2,800 (less than 1%) since last year, and an increase of 27,000 (6%) since 2010. This makes it the highest FTE of teachers since the School Workforce Census began in 2010.</p><p>The Department’s reforms are aimed at increasing teacher recruitment and at ensuring teachers across England stay and succeed in the profession.</p><p>The Department announced a financial incentives package worth up to £181 million for those starting Initial Teacher Training (ITT) in the 2023/24 academic year. This includes the reintroduction of a £15,000 bursary to train to teach English, which will be available for prospective English teachers starting teacher training this autumn.</p><p>The Department has also raised starting salaries outside of London by 8.9% to £28,000 and remains committed to the Government’s ambition of delivering £30,000 starting salaries to attract talented people to teaching.</p><p>The Department has created an entitlement to at least three years of structured training, support, and professional development for all new teachers, underpinned by the ITT Core Content Framework and the Early Career Framework (ECF). Further information on the ITT Core Content Framework can be found here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/initial-teacher-training-itt-core-content-framework" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/initial-teacher-training-itt-core-content-framework</a>. Further information on the ECF can be found here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-career-framework" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-career-framework</a>. Together, these ensure that new teachers will benefit from at least three years of evidence based training, across ITT and into their induction.</p><p>To support retention across all subjects, the Department has worked with the education sector and has published a range of resources to help address staff workload and wellbeing and to support schools to introduce flexible working practices. This includes the workload reduction toolkit and the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter. Further information on the workload reduction toolkit can be found here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-workload-reduction-toolkit" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-workload-reduction-toolkit</a>. Further information on the Education Staff Wellbeing charter can be found here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-staff-wellbeing-charter" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-staff-wellbeing-charter</a>. More than 2,600 schools have signed up to the Charter so far.</p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 27/06/2023 11:38:13 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
tabling member	4253 label Biography information for Seema Malhotra

1645647

registered interest
date	19/06/2023
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Children: Swimming
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to educate pupils on the potential danger of open water swimming.
tabling member constituency	Bolton South East
tabling member printed	Yasmin Qureshi
uin	190068
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/06/2023 answer text <p>Water safety is a vital life skill, which is why swimming and water safety is a compulsory part of the PE and Sport National Curriculum at Key Stages 1 and 2. Pupils should be taught how to perform safe self rescue in a variety of water based situations, including open water.</p><p>Schools can also use the Personal, Social, Health and Economic curriculum to equip pupils with a sound understanding of risk and with the knowledge necessary to make safe and informed decisions, which is a vital part of water safety.​</p><p>​The Department is working in partnership with members of the National Water Safety Forum, in particular the Royal Life Saving Society UK, Swim England, and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Together with the Department, these organisations are supporting more schools to teach primary and secondary pupils important aspects of water safety, such as cold water shock, rip tides and keeping safe near frozen water.​ New resources for pupils in Key Stages 1 to 3 have been provided by the National Water Safety Forum, supporting teachers to deliver water safety in a classroom environment.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 27/06/2023 11:35:54 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
tabling member	3924 label Biography information for Yasmin Qureshi

1645654

registered interest
date	19/06/2023
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Nurseries and Schools: Buildings
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data her Department holds on the number of (a) nurseries, (b) primary schools, (c) secondary schools, (d) sixth form colleges and (e) all-through schools that have experienced construction delays that have postponed the planned opening date in each of the last five years.
tabling member constituency	Exeter
tabling member printed	Mr Ben Bradshaw
uin	190024
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/06/2023 answer text <p>The Department aims to minimise the time that any free school spends in pre-opening. Officials work closely with schools and trusts to ensure they receive the support they need, as projects progress.</p><p>If the Department is not confident that a free school will be viable, sustainable, and successful, it will not hesitate to defer or cancel a project at any point during the pre-opening phase.</p><p>The Department monitors opening dates across all free school projects but does not record whether changes to the original expected year of opening are due to site issues or other concerns around viability and readiness to open.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 27/06/2023 11:17:03 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
tabling member	230 label Biography information for Mr Ben Bradshaw

1645655

registered interest
date	19/06/2023
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	School Rebuilding Programme
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data her Department holds on the number of school rebuilding programme projects that have experienced construction delays of more than one month in each of the last five years.
tabling member constituency	Exeter
tabling member printed	Mr Ben Bradshaw
uin	190025
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/06/2023 answer text <p>The Department is transforming buildings at 500 schools over the next decade as part of its School Rebuilding Programme. The construction programmes of building projects in all Department programmes is monitored by the Department through programme management and project delivery teams.</p><p>In the four school rebuilding projects which have been completed, three were delayed more than a month against initial forecasts. These initial programme forecasts were made ahead of the impact of significant events that could not have been reasonably predicted and that affected the global market.</p><p>The Department has continuously improved its approach to building schools since the Sebastian James’ review. This identified that the Building Schools for the Future programme, introduced under the last Government in 2004, was overly bureaucratic and not designed to target poor condition, did not support high and consistent quality, did not use standardised specifications that work for education, and did not deliver value for money and economies of scale from central procurement and delivery, which are all things that are now prioritised when building schools.</p><p>Under the Priority School Building Programme (PSBP) this Government launched in 2014, whole schools were built<del class="ministerial"> at</del> one third <ins class="ministerial">cheaper</ins><del class="ministerial"> of the cost</del> per square metre on average than schools built under the Building Schools for the Future Programme. The Department has further built on this success in its School Rebuilding Programme, which is exceeding delivery timescales compared to PSBP, while delivering schools that will be net zero in operation. The Infrastructure and Project Authority has highlighted that our progress is very good.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 27/06/2023 16:39:14 question first ministerially corrected 10/07/2023 11:59:26 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb previous answer version 83604 answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
tabling member	230 label Biography information for Mr Ben Bradshaw

1645656

registered interest
date	19/06/2023
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Schools: Buildings
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has oversight of work on school buildings that is subcontracted by its contractors.
tabling member constituency	Exeter
tabling member printed	Mr Ben Bradshaw
uin	190026
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/06/2023 answer text <p>Departmental project managers oversee work on school building projects that are procured centrally by the Department. These projects are managed and monitored on a day to day basis by appointed Technical Advisors, who oversee project delivery including the performance of subcontractors. On site, the Technical Advisor’s Clerk of Works performs site based assurance over construction works, with oversight of work that is undertaken by sub-contractors.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 27/06/2023 11:12:47 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
tabling member	230 label Biography information for Mr Ben Bradshaw

1645733

registered interest
date	19/06/2023
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Education: Birmingham
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Government has made an assessment of the potential impact of trends in the level of overcrowding in social housing in Birmingham on (a) primary and (b) secondary school children's education outcomes in that area.
tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Edgbaston
tabling member printed	Preet Kaur Gill
uin	190200
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/06/2023 answer text <p>The Department has evaluated the national impact of poverty on educational outcomes.​ Evidence from the Education Endowment Foundation, Star Assessments and Renaissance Learning shows that disadvantaged pupils have fallen further behind non disadvantaged pupils compared with pre COVID-19 pandemic levels, at Key Stages 1, 2 and 4. This is indicated by a rise in the disadvantage gap index between 2019 and 2022 at KS2 and KS4. That is why the Department has increased its range of support for pupils, families, and schools.</p><p>In 2022/23, the Department will be allocating approximately £2,000 per pupil for all pupils who have been eligible for free school meals at any point in the last six years, which will be delivered through the National Funding Formula, the Pupil Premium, and the 2022/23 School Supplementary Grant together. The Pupil Premium, of which £107.5 million will be allocated to Birmingham schools in 2023/24, enables schools to provide extra support for disadvantaged pupils to help improve their academic and personal achievements. Of the 82,408 eligible pupils in Birmingham, £1,455 per pupil will go to each primary school, £1,035 per pupil to each secondary school, and schools will also receive £ 2,530 per looked after and previously looked after child.</p><p>Support also includes the National Tutoring Programme (NTP), where funding has been allocated to schools based on rates of disadvantage. Since the launch of the NTP in November 2020, around 2.85 million tutoring courses have been started, as at 6 October 2022. The six million courses the Department committed to creating in the Schools White Paper will be delivered by 2024. The Department has made available almost £5 billion for education recovery, including multi year direct investment, so that schools can deliver evidence based interventions, based on pupil’s needs. Collectively, these programmes are making a difference to pupils and schools. Recent data from the Education Policy Institute and Rising Stars/Hodder Education shows that for primary age pupils, most year groups have either caught up in English and mathematics or are now on average 4 to6 weeks behind pre COVID-19 pandemic levels, a significant increase from previous studies which suggested pupils were 2.5 to 3 months behind.</p><p>In addition, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities leads an interministerial group for Levelling Up to facilitate cross Government work on the Levelling Up agenda. This group includes Ministers from all Departments leading on missions, including an ambition to reduce the number of poor quality rented homes by one half and for 90% of pupils to achieve the expected level at Key Stage 2. The group provides an opportunity for support, challenge, and accountability on the progression of these missions.</p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 27/06/2023 16:38:25 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
tabling member	4603 label Biography information for Preet Kaur Gill

1645285

registered interest
date	16/06/2023
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Free School Meals: Finance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what were the savings to the public purse of unspent free school meal allowances in the (a) 2020-21, (b) 2021-22 and (c) 2022-23 financial years; and if she will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Newcastle upon Tyne North
tabling member printed	Catherine McKinnell
uin	189942
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/06/2023 answer text <p>The Department allocates funding to schools to support free school meals (FSM) provision, through their core budgets. In 2023/24, the funding rate for each pupil who is eligible for FSM stands at £480. In total, the Department spends over £1 billion each year on free meals, which now support over one third of pupils in England.</p><p>FSM are intended as a benefit in kind, rather than a cash benefit, and the Department’s primary interest is that schools meet their legal duties to provide nutritious free lunches to eligible pupils.</p><p>Schools have considerable freedom in how they deliver FSM, and it is important that pupils are claiming their free lunch each day. Schools and colleges should ensure pupils are not building up significant cash reserves on their accounts or regularly spending their allowances at other times of day without receiving their healthy lunch.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb grouped question UIN 189943 question first answered 22/06/2023 15:55:03 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
tabling member	4125 label Biography information for Catherine McKinnell

1645286

registered interest
date	16/06/2023
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Free School Meals: Finance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of allowing pupils who are eligible for free school meals to use an unspent daily allowance on a future day.
tabling member constituency	Newcastle upon Tyne North
tabling member printed	Catherine McKinnell
uin	189943
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/06/2023 answer text <p>The Department allocates funding to schools to support free school meals (FSM) provision, through their core budgets. In 2023/24, the funding rate for each pupil who is eligible for FSM stands at £480. In total, the Department spends over £1 billion each year on free meals, which now support over one third of pupils in England.</p><p>FSM are intended as a benefit in kind, rather than a cash benefit, and the Department’s primary interest is that schools meet their legal duties to provide nutritious free lunches to eligible pupils.</p><p>Schools have considerable freedom in how they deliver FSM, and it is important that pupils are claiming their free lunch each day. Schools and colleges should ensure pupils are not building up significant cash reserves on their accounts or regularly spending their allowances at other times of day without receiving their healthy lunch.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb grouped question UIN 189942 question first answered 22/06/2023 15:55:03 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
tabling member	4125 label Biography information for Catherine McKinnell

1645299

registered interest
date	16/06/2023
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Pupils: Absenteeism
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate she has made of the proportion of children on the roll of (a) primary and (b) secondary schools who have been absent for four weeks or longer.
tabling member constituency	Leeds Central
tabling member printed	Hilary Benn
uin	189930
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/06/2023 answer text <p>Data on absence and attendance are collected via two sources. The School Census collects data on total termly absence only and does not collect dates or continuous periods of absence. It does not collect data on whether pupils were absent for a period of four weeks or longer. It collects data on proportion of absence over a term or year.</p><p> </p><p>Information on absence is also collected via data submitted to the Department by participating schools on a daily basis. The information requested is not readily available from this source and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 26/06/2023 16:33:21 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
tabling member	413 label Biography information for Hilary Benn

1645099

registered interest
date	15/06/2023
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Pupils: Per Capita Costs
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to tackle funding gaps between rural and urban National Funding Formula Allocations per pupil.
tabling member constituency	North Shropshire
tabling member printed	Helen Morgan
uin	189896
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/06/2023 answer text <p>Funding for mainstream schools and high needs is £3.5 billion higher in 2023/24, compared to 2022/23. That is on top of the £4 billion, year on year increase provided in 2022/23, an increase of £7.5 billion, or over 15%, in just two years. This takes total funding for both mainstream schools and high needs to £57.3 billion in 2023/24.</p><p>The schools National Funding Formula (NFF) distributes funding fairly, based on schools’ and pupils’ needs and characteristics, and as a result of this, not all areas or schools attract the same level of funding. It is not the purpose of the NFF to give every school the same level of per pupil funding. Instead, it is right that schools with more pupils with additional needs, such as those indicated by measures of deprivation, low prior attainment, or English as an additional language, receive extra funding to help them meet the needs of all their pupils.</p><p>The Department appreciates that small schools in geographically challenging areas do not have the same opportunities to find efficiencies as those elsewhere. The sparsity factor in the NFF allocates additional funding specifically to these schools, without which pupils would have to travel a long way to get to school. £97 million has been allocated to small and remote schools through the sparsity factor in 2023/24, which is an increase from £26 million in the 2020/21 financial year.</p><p>The amount of additional funding that small schools can attract in 2023/24 has increased to up to £56,300 for primary schools, and up to £81,900 for secondary schools. Since 2022/23, the Department has been measuring schools’ remoteness more accurately, by road distances. This has led to a significant increase in the number of schools eligible for sparsity funding, with over 2,500 schools now eligible.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 23/06/2023 13:31:00 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
tabling member	4934 label Biography information for Helen Morgan