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1127454

	registered interest
	date	20/05/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts: Finance
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to ensure that the Higher Education Funding Council for England followed the correct procedures when it considered an application from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts for funding in 2016.
	tabling member printed	Lord Watts
	uin	HL15865
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/06/2019 answer text <p>During the existence of the Higher Education Funding Council for England it performed the duties required of it to a high standard, including dealing with funding applications.</p><p> </p><p>The UK government cannot currently comment on the specific case of the funding application from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts in 2016 as there is a live investigation underway by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Viscount Younger of Leckie question first answered 04/06/2019 13:13:51 answering member 4169 label Biography information for Viscount Younger of Leckie
	tabling member	489 label Biography information for Lord Watts

1127816

	registered interest
	date	21/05/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Children in Care
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of children in unregistered children's homes in each year since 2010.
	tabling member constituency	Ashton-under-Lyne
	tabling member printed	Angela Rayner
	uin	257079
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/06/2019 answer text <p>The information requested is not held centrally.</p><p>Information on the placements of children looked-after is collected annually and published in the statistical release “Children looked after in England (including adoptions): 2017 to 2018”. The latest release is available on the department’s statistical web page at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2017-to-2018" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2017-to-2018</a>. Previous releases can be located here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-looked-after-children" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-looked-after-children</a>.</p><p>Any child specifically placed in unregistered provision could be reported across a number of placement categories, but not exclusively in any, so we can not estimate the number of children placed within unregistered homes.</p><p>Unregulated accommodation can be the right option for some older children in care and care leavers aged 16 or 17, providing a stepping-stone towards moving into an independent tenancy.</p><p>However, I want a better understanding of the use of this type of provision and have commissioned a piece of research to understand the issues related to the use of unregistered and unregulated provision. Sir Alan Wood, in his role as chair of the Residential Care Leadership Board, will oversee this work, which will develop our understanding of the reasons for local authorities placing children in these settings and their quality. I visited some unregulated provision on 23 May to further my knowledge of this type of accommodation.</p><p>In May, I wrote to all Directors of Children’s Services asking them to ensure that the accommodation they use is suitable; and to ensure that young people are getting the support they need.</p><p>I take providing appropriate support to young people in care and leaving care very seriously. That is why the government is funding local authorities to implement ‘Staying Put’, which allows care leavers to stay with their foster carer up to the age of 21, and piloting ‘Staying Closer’ in 8 local authorities, which provides an enhanced support offer for young people leaving residential care.</p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Stratford-on-Avon answering member printed Nadhim Zahawi question first answered 04/06/2019 13:06:05 answering member 4113 label Biography information for Nadhim Zahawi
	tabling member	4356 label Biography information for Angela Rayner

1127786

	registered interest
	date	21/05/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Arts: Curriculum
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what his policy is on the inclusion of music, dance and theatre in the school curriculum.
	tabling member constituency	Tewkesbury
	tabling member printed	Mr Laurence Robertson
	uin	256913
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/06/2019 answer text <p>The Department strongly believes that the arts form an important part of a broad and balanced National Curriculum, which is why art &amp; design, dance, drama and music are compulsory for pupils aged 5-14 in state-maintained schools. The arts contribute significantly towards our economy and can transform lives and introduce young people to a huge range of opportunities. As a result, the Department is providing nearly £500 million of funding between 2016 and 2020 for a diverse portfolio of arts and music education programmes. £300 million of this funding is ring-fenced to support music education. The Department funds other music, dance and drama programmes as well, and also provides opportunities for young people to attend Saturday Arts Clubs and visit museums.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 04/06/2019 07:44:15 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
	tabling member	253 label Biography information for Mr Laurence Robertson

1127751

	registered interest
	date	21/05/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education: Finance
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reason Government funding was withdrawn for the Quality Assurance Agency's regulatory and Quality Assurance licensing of Access Validating Agency's for the new academic year 2019-20.
	tabling member constituency	Blackpool South
	tabling member printed	Gordon Marsden
	uin	256937
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/06/2019 answer text <p>Under the Higher Education and Research Act 2017, the Office for Students cannot pay the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) to regulate or quality assure Access Validating Agency’s or Access to Higher Education Courses beyond 31 July 2019.</p><p> </p><p>The department has spoken with the QAA to discuss how it is adapting to the conclusion of these historic contracts and will hold further discussions later in the year.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Kingswood answering member printed Chris Skidmore question first answered 04/06/2019 07:42:47 answering member 4021 label Biography information for Chris Skidmore
	tabling member	465 label Biography information for Gordon Marsden

1127748

	registered interest
	date	21/05/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	English Baccalaureate
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans his Department has to ensure that grades awarded for EBaccs are comparable across all subjects.
	tabling member constituency	Dulwich and West Norwood
	tabling member printed	Helen Hayes
	uin	257045
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/06/2019 answer text <p>This is a matter for the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual). I have asked its Chief Regulator, Sally Collier, to write directly to the hon. Member and a copy of her reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses. ​​</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 04/06/2019 07:40:39 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
	tabling member	4510 label Biography information for Helen Hayes

1127747

	registered interest
	date	21/05/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Languages: GCSE
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the difficulty in obtaining top grades in exams on the number of students choosing to study a foreign language at GCSE.
	tabling member constituency	Dulwich and West Norwood
	tabling member printed	Helen Hayes
	uin	257044
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/06/2019 answer text <p>The Department is aware that many factors can influence a student’s decision to study languages at GCSE level. As the regulator of qualifications, examinations and assessment in England, Ofqual takes claims of grading severity in modern foreign languages (MFL) seriously. Ofqual is currently conducting a comprehensive review of grading standards in GCSE French, German and Spanish to see if there is a compelling case for an adjustment to grading standards in these subjects. Ofqual’s review will consider statistical evidence, contextual data including trends in the numbers taking these subjects, and the quality of students’ work through looking at how GCSE grades relate to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Ofqual is also gathering the views of subject experts and other stakeholders and is due to report on this work in autumn 2019.</p><p> </p><p>The Department wants to see more pupils taking a language GCSE. We are supporting schools to increase the number of pupils taking GCSEs in languages through several programmes including, the £4.8 million MFL pedagogy programme, an undergraduate digi-mentoring scheme, the £10 million Mandarin Excellence Programme, and targeted communications activity at key points in the school year to challenge misconceptions about studying languages.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 04/06/2019 07:39:28 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
	tabling member	4510 label Biography information for Helen Hayes

1127441

	registered interest
	date	20/05/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Special Educational Needs
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that local health partners are playing an equitable role alongside local government in supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities.
	tabling member printed	Lord Porter of Spalding
	uin	HL15852
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/06/2019 answer text <p>Creating an effective inter-agency approach, where local government works in partnership with health partners to meet needs, is a key feature of the reforms to the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) system introduced in the 2014 Children and Families Act.</p><p> </p><p>We introduced joint Ofsted/Care Quality Commission local area inspections of SEND services in May 2016 to hold services to account and support them with improving. Where issues with performance are identified, including following a SEND inspection, the Department for Education (DfE), Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England collaborate to drive improvement.</p><p> </p><p>In addition to the inspections, we have strengthened joint accountability through the introduction of a 2-year trial, which began in April 2018, extending the remit of the First-tier Tribunal (SEND) to make non-binding recommendations on health and social care elements of education health care (EHC) plans.</p><p> </p><p>To improve timeliness, the 2017-18 NHS Provider Contract for NHS Trusts included a new requirement to report on meeting the 6-week deadline for health input into EHC plans.</p><p>We are clear that strong strategic leadership across health, education and care is key to effective SEND services and we have:</p><p> </p><blockquote><p>Established a new joint SEND system leadership board, with representatives from education, health and social care, working alongside joint roundtables chaired by Ministers from both DfE and DHSC.</p></blockquote><p> </p><blockquote><p>Established a national network for Designated Medical Officers and Designated Clinical Officers, funded a local authority-led regional network and developed resources to support joint self-assessment and peer review.</p></blockquote><p> </p><blockquote><p>Funded a consortium of partners, including the Condition Data Collection, to work with health and social care services, including producing guidance on effective joint commissioning and improving EHC plans.</p></blockquote><p> </p><blockquote><p>Funded a SEND leadership programme and legal training for all local authorities and their health partners to ensure they are clear on their statutory responsibilities.</p></blockquote><p> </p><p>We have also re-emphasised the requirement to jointly commission Information, Advice and Support (IAS) Services across health and the local authority through our new minimum standards, backed by £10 million investment through the IAS programme.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Agnew of Oulton question first answered 03/06/2019 13:06:33 answering member 4689 label Biography information for Lord Agnew of Oulton
	tabling member	4555 label Biography information for Lord Porter of Spalding

1127445

	registered interest
	date	20/05/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Vocational Education
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to work with UK businesses to address any gaps in the education and training of vocational skills.
	tabling member printed	Lord Taylor of Warwick
	uin	HL15856
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/06/2019 answer text <p>The department is working with employers to jointly design and deliver policies and programmes which will make the skills system more responsive to employer needs, whilst giving individuals the skills they need to succeed.</p><p> </p><p>T levels are being designed to better meet the needs of businesses and to help young people to move successfully into skilled employment. Over 200 employers have been involved in defining the content of T levels to ensure that they reflect current industry requirements. Students’ experience on industry placements will be ‘hands on’ so they will leave their course with the skills employers are looking for.</p><p> </p><p>Employers are leading on the design of new apprenticeships standards, putting them in the driving seat to give apprentices the skills that businesses really need. Across all sectors, they are being designed and driven by industry, creating higher quality training that will lead to a more skilled and productive economy. We are working closely with employers to help them take advantage of apprenticeships and grow their programmes.</p><p> </p><p>Employers are central to traineeships, which are an education and training programme supporting social mobility by providing quality training for young people who need to develop their skills and experience in order to enter the labour market. They consist of a high quality work placement with an employer; work preparation training; and English and maths support for those who have not achieved a GCSE grade A* to C or equivalent with a training provider.</p><p> </p><p>We are establishing a National Retraining Scheme, driven by the National Retraining Partnership, which brings together the Confederation of British Industry, Trades Union Congress and the government to set the scheme’s strategic direction and oversee its development. This partnership will work together to ensure that the voices of businesses and workers feed directly into the development of the scheme so that it will genuinely make a difference.</p><p> </p><p>Skills Advisory Panels (SAPs) aim to bring together local employers and skills providers to pool knowledge on skills and labour market needs. They aim to work together to understand and address key local challenges, including helping to tackle local skills shortages. SAPs will address both immediate needs and challenges and look at what is required to help local areas adapt to future labour market changes and to grasp future opportunities. This will help colleges, universities and other providers deliver the skills required by employers, now and in the future.</p> answering member printed Lord Agnew of Oulton question first answered 03/06/2019 13:05:19 answering member 4689 label Biography information for Lord Agnew of Oulton
	tabling member	1796 label Biography information for Lord Taylor of Warwick

1128001

	registered interest
	date	21/05/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Special Educational Needs
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that local authorities comply fully with the Children and Families Act 2014 in the cases of children with education, health and care plans; and what action they are taking to ensure that there are no disincentives, both in terms of funding and concerns over their position on league tables, for schools to be inclusive and to accept children with special educational needs.
	tabling member printed	The Marquess of Lothian
	uin	HL15886
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/05/2019 answer text <p>To ensure local authorities comply fully with their obligations under the Children and Families Act (2014), including on education, health and care plans, we introduced new local area special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) inspections by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission in 2016. All local areas will be inspected by 2021. These inspections do not give a pass/fail judgement. They instead identify areas of strength and where improvement is required, including asking an area to produce a Written Statement of Action if there are significant concerns. Where we have concerns with a local area’s performance, we work with partners, including NHS England, to support and challenge the area to improve.</p><p> </p><p>The inspection reports have proved a catalyst for local change, both where Written Statements of Action have been required and where they have not. Local authorities and their health partners have embraced the process and used inspection findings to prioritise areas for improvement.</p><p> </p><p>In terms of ensuring schools are inclusive, the Children and Families Act (2014) reinforced the presumption of mainstream education for children with SEND. The attached SEND Code of Practice provides detailed guidance to schools about how to support children with SEND. The new Ofsted common inspection framework, introduced from September 2019, emphasises the need for leaders to offer high-quality, inclusive education and training to all.</p><p> </p><p>We launched a call for evidence on how the special educational needs funding system operates in May 2019 to help us understand how the current available funding is distributed, and what improvements to the financial arrangements could be made in future.</p> answering member printed Lord Agnew of Oulton question first answered 31/05/2019 10:27:09 answering member 4689 label Biography information for Lord Agnew of Oulton attachment 1 file name HL15886_SEND_Code_of_Practice_January_2015.pdf title HL15886_PDF
	tabling member	259 label Biography information for The Marquess of Lothian

1127439

	registered interest
	date	20/05/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Special Educational Needs
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that mainstream schools are supported and incentivised to be more inclusive towards children with special educational needs and disabilities.
	tabling member printed	Lord Porter of Spalding
	uin	HL15850
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/05/2019 answer text <p>The Children and Families Act 2014 reinforced the presumption of mainstream education for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). The accompanying SEND code of practice provides detailed guidance to schools about how to support children with SEND.</p><p> </p><p>We have announced funding for new training places for over 600 new Educational Psychologists who help ensure that children with SEND get the support they need in school.</p><p> </p><p>We are promoting the increased development of mainstream units and resourced provision through recent capital expenditure and in our guidance to new bidders for mainstream free schools. In December we announced a further £100 million top-up to the Special Provision Capital Fund for local authorities in 2019-20. This takes our total investment to £365 million across 2018-21. This funding can be used for more places in SEND units and resourced provision in mainstream schools, colleges or in special schools.</p><p> </p><p>We are funding the Whole School SEND Consortium to embed SEND into school improvement planning and Continuing Professional Development (CPD). New SEND regional leads are bringing together practitioners and networks in their local area to build a community of practice and facilitate the exchange of knowledge and expertise.</p><p> </p><p>The new Ofsted common inspection framework, introduced from September 2019, will put more focus on SEND, rewarding schools for their work with pupils who need extra support. In addition, local area SEND inspections by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission are considering how effectively the local area identifies, meets the needs of, and improves the outcomes for the wide range of different groups of children and young people who have SEND.</p><p> </p><p>A call for evidence on how the SEND funding system operates was recently announced on 3 May 2019 to help the department understand how the current available funding is distributed, and what improvements to the financial arrangements could be made in future.</p> answering member printed Lord Agnew of Oulton question first answered 31/05/2019 10:25:44 answering member 4689 label Biography information for Lord Agnew of Oulton
	tabling member	4555 label Biography information for Lord Porter of Spalding