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1357177

registered interest
date	21/09/2021
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	BTEC Qualifications
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 ensure that students can continue to study BTEC qualifications in the future.
tabling member constituency	Liverpool, Riverside
tabling member printed	Kim Johnson
uin	52619
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/09/2021 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 we close the gap between what people study and the needs of employers. This is why we are introducing over 20 T Levels and are strengthening the routes to progress into skilled employment or further study with high quality qualifications that are fit for the future. T Levels are challenging qualifications developed with 250 leading employers. They include a meaningful nine-week industry placement and will equip more young people with the skills, knowledge and experience necessary to access skilled employment or further training.</p><p>We set out the qualifications we intend to fund alongside A levels and T Levels at level 3 in July 2021. We are clear that any qualifications that are funded to be taken alongside or instead of A levels or T Levels must be high quality and lead to good outcomes. We will fund level 3 BTECs and/or other Applied General or similar qualifications where there is a clear need for skills and knowledge that T Levels and A levels cannot provide. These must meet new quality criteria to be approved for funding.</p><p>We have been clear that we expect the changes to be generally 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.</p> answering member constituency Brentwood and Ongar answering member printed Alex Burghart grouped question UIN 52620 question first answered 29/09/2021 15:00:03 answering member 4613 label Biography information for Alex Burghart
tabling member	4824 label Biography information for Kim Johnson

1357178

registered interest
date	21/09/2021
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Vocational Education: Qualifications
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 effect on students of removing funding for certain BTEC qualifications.
tabling member constituency	Liverpool, Riverside
tabling member printed	Kim Johnson
uin	52620
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/09/2021 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 we close the gap between what people study and the needs of employers. This is why we are introducing over 20 T Levels and are strengthening the routes to progress into skilled employment or further study with high quality qualifications that are fit for the future. T Levels are challenging qualifications developed with 250 leading employers. They include a meaningful nine-week industry placement and will equip more young people with the skills, knowledge and experience necessary to access skilled employment or further training.</p><p>We set out the qualifications we intend to fund alongside A levels and T Levels at level 3 in July 2021. We are clear that any qualifications that are funded to be taken alongside or instead of A levels or T Levels must be high quality and lead to good outcomes. We will fund level 3 BTECs and/or other Applied General or similar qualifications where there is a clear need for skills and knowledge that T Levels and A levels cannot provide. These must meet new quality criteria to be approved for funding.</p><p>We have been clear that we expect the changes to be generally 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.</p> answering member constituency Brentwood and Ongar answering member printed Alex Burghart grouped question UIN 52619 question first answered 29/09/2021 15:00:03 answering member 4613 label Biography information for Alex Burghart
tabling member	4824 label Biography information for Kim Johnson

1357249

registered interest
date	21/09/2021
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Breakfast Clubs
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 implications for his policies of the decision by the Scottish Government to provide universal free breakfasts to primary school age children.
tabling member constituency	East Ham
tabling member printed	Stephen Timms
uin	52399
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/10/2021 answer text <p>Decisions around school funding and the provision of school food including breakfast clubs are a matter for the devolved administrations. <br> <br> The government is committed to continuing support for school breakfast clubs in England and is further investing up to £24 million to continue our national programme for the next two years. This funding will support around 2,500 schools in disadvantaged areas in England, including Opportunity Areas. This will mean that thousands of children from low income families will be offered free nutritious breakfasts to better support their attainment, wellbeing, and readiness to learn.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 18/10/2021 16:15:02 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	163 label Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms

1357250

registered interest
date	21/09/2021
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Free School Meals
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate his Department has made of the number of eligible students who are not in receipt of food support from their school.
tabling member constituency	East Ham
tabling member printed	Stephen Timms
uin	52400
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/10/2021 answer text <p>The continuing provision of free school meals (FSM) to children from households that are out of work, or on low incomes, is of the utmost importance to the government. Under this government, eligibility for FSM has been extended several times and to more groups of children than any other government over the past half a century.</p><p> </p><p>We want to make sure as many eligible pupils as possible are claiming FSM, and to make it as simple as possible for schools and local authorities to determine eligibility.</p><p> </p><p>To support this:</p><ul><li>We provide an Eligibility Checking System to make the checking process as quick and straightforward as possible for schools and local authorities.</li><li>We have developed a model registration form to help schools encourage parents to sign up for FSM.</li><li>We also provide guidance to Jobcentre Plus advisers so that they can make Universal Credit recipients aware that they may also be entitled to wider benefits, including free school meals.</li></ul><p> </p><p>We have provided around £450 million worth of food vouchers to families whilst schools were largely closed. Now schools are open again, school food provision has returned to typical delivery arrangements, with meals being provided free of charge to eligible pupils at school. If pupils who are eligible for benefits-related free school meals are required to stay at home due to COVID-19, schools should continue to work with their school catering team or food provider to offer a good quality lunch parcel.</p><p>Throughout 2021 we are investing up to £220 million in our Holiday Activities and Food programme. Taking place in schools and community venues across the country, delivery began at Easter, has run across the summer and will run in the Christmas holidays. It supports disadvantaged pupils and their families with enriching activities, providing them with healthy food, helping them to learn new things and supporting socialisation and well-being. We are also further investing with £24 million in the National Breakfast Club programme, providing breakfast clubs in schools in disadvantaged areas.</p><p>Beyond this, the Department for Work and Pension has provided £429 million through the Covid Local Support Grant. This is being run by local authorities in England to support the hardest hit families and individuals with food and essential utility costs.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince grouped question UIN 52401 question first answered 18/10/2021 16:14:28 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	163 label Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms

1357252

registered interest
date	21/09/2021
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Pupils: Food Poverty
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 provide further support to schools to enable them to help children who are experiencing food insecurity.
tabling member constituency	East Ham
tabling member printed	Stephen Timms
uin	52401
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/10/2021 answer text <p>The continuing provision of free school meals (FSM) to children from households that are out of work, or on low incomes, is of the utmost importance to the government. Under this government, eligibility for FSM has been extended several times and to more groups of children than any other government over the past half a century.</p><p> </p><p>We want to make sure as many eligible pupils as possible are claiming FSM, and to make it as simple as possible for schools and local authorities to determine eligibility.</p><p> </p><p>To support this:</p><ul><li>We provide an Eligibility Checking System to make the checking process as quick and straightforward as possible for schools and local authorities.</li><li>We have developed a model registration form to help schools encourage parents to sign up for FSM.</li><li>We also provide guidance to Jobcentre Plus advisers so that they can make Universal Credit recipients aware that they may also be entitled to wider benefits, including free school meals.</li></ul><p> </p><p>We have provided around £450 million worth of food vouchers to families whilst schools were largely closed. Now schools are open again, school food provision has returned to typical delivery arrangements, with meals being provided free of charge to eligible pupils at school. If pupils who are eligible for benefits-related free school meals are required to stay at home due to COVID-19, schools should continue to work with their school catering team or food provider to offer a good quality lunch parcel.</p><p>Throughout 2021 we are investing up to £220 million in our Holiday Activities and Food programme. Taking place in schools and community venues across the country, delivery began at Easter, has run across the summer and will run in the Christmas holidays. It supports disadvantaged pupils and their families with enriching activities, providing them with healthy food, helping them to learn new things and supporting socialisation and well-being. We are also further investing with £24 million in the National Breakfast Club programme, providing breakfast clubs in schools in disadvantaged areas.</p><p>Beyond this, the Department for Work and Pension has provided £429 million through the Covid Local Support Grant. This is being run by local authorities in England to support the hardest hit families and individuals with food and essential utility costs.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince grouped question UIN 52400 question first answered 18/10/2021 16:14:28 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	163 label Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms

1357303

registered interest
date	21/09/2021
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 State for Education, with reference to the findings of the survey of 20,000 parents by Mumsnet with 13 other groups, published in September 2021, what recent assessment he has made of the impact of the cost of childcare on (a) household bills and (b) the career choices of parents.
tabling member constituency	Hornsey and Wood Green
tabling member printed	Catherine West
uin	52566
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/09/2021 answer text <p>The department welcomes the contribution that Mumsnet and their partner organisations have made around this topic. However, it is important to note that this survey is unweighted, and the sample size represents a small proportion of all parents with a child or children in the early years.</p><p>Ipsos MORI conducted wave 9 of our parent poll, ‘Childcare use, perceived impact on child development, information on working from home, and awareness and use of free entitlements for families of 0-4 year-olds during COVID-19’ in July 2021, with a smaller but representative sample of 1,000 parents of children aged 0-4 in England. This is available at: <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/childcare-use-perceived-impact-child-development-information-working-home-and-awareness-and-use" target="_blank">https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/childcare-use-perceived-impact-child-development-information-working-home-and-awareness-and-use</a>.</p><p>The data has been weighted to match the population profile of parents of children aged 0-4 in England by region, social grade, and the age of the selected child.</p><p>The Parent Poll asked different questions to the Mumsnet survey but key points from the findings include:</p><ul><li>The affordability of weekly childcare costs is unchanged for just over half of parents compared to before the COVID-19 outbreak, and for 3 in 10 parents their weekly childcare costs are now easier to meet.</li><li>The majority of parents (91%) who used formal childcare before the COVID-19 outbreak, and are currently using it, say that their child is spending about the same number of hours or more in formal childcare as they did before.</li><li>More than half (56%) of parents report that their child is currently using formal childcare, this increases to 94% when looking at just those children who were receiving formal childcare before the COVID-19 outbreak.</li><li>Only 6% of parents whose child was not receiving formal childcare said they would like to use formal childcare but have not been able to find a suitable provider. This is only approximately 2% of all parents.</li><li>Nearly two thirds of parents of 0-4 year olds currently using childcare (64%) agree that the hours their child(ren) can access formal or informal childcare/school fits with the working hours of the adults in the household.</li></ul> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 29/09/2021 08:55:03 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4523 label Biography information for Catherine West

1357305

registered interest
date	21/09/2021
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Pre-school Education
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the role of early years services is in the Government's Levelling Up agenda.
tabling member constituency	Blaydon
tabling member printed	Liz Twist
uin	52575
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/09/2021 answer text <p>Levelling up is at the heart of the agenda to build back better after the COVID-19 outbreak and to deliver for every part of the UK. The department takes a dual approach to disadvantage: tackling outcome inequalities nationally while tilting efforts to, and working specifically in, places of greatest need.</p><p>In education, ability is evenly spread but opportunity is not. We know that differences in outcomes start early. To really tackle our levelling up challenge, we must look at our support for children and young people at every level, from support for families and childcare, through to university, and to develop skills throughout life.</p><p>We are already making progress. On 2 June 2021 we announced an additional £1.4 billion education recovery package, which includes a £153 million investment in evidence-based professional development for early years practitioners, including through new programmes focusing on key areas such as speech and language development.</p><p>This is in addition to the £27 million which we are already investing to support children’s early language development in light of the COVID-19 outbreak:</p><ul><li>£17 million is to deliver the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) in schools that would particularly benefit. Two thirds of primary schools have already signed up for the programme.</li><li>£10 million will support language development for pre-reception children in the next academic year.</li></ul><p>What happens outside of schools and settings is also important. The government is investing over £34 million to champion family hubs. This approach will help to support children of all ages and their families across a broad range of needs in their localities. This investment includes establishing a new national centre for family hubs, run by the Anna Freud Centre for Children and Families; a new transformation fund to open family hubs in around 10 local authorities; an evaluation innovation fund; and work with local authorities to develop data and digital products that will support the practical implementation of family hubs.</p><p>The government will publish a landmark Levelling Up White Paper later this year, setting out bold new policy interventions to improve livelihoods and opportunity in all parts of the UK.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 29/09/2021 09:10:41 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4618 label Biography information for Liz Twist

1357308

registered interest
date	21/09/2021
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Pre-school Education: Standards
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 adequacy of early years provision.
tabling member constituency	Blaydon
tabling member printed	Liz Twist
uin	52576
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/09/2021 answer text <p>High quality, accessible childcare is important in ensuring that every child has the best possible start in life. The overall quality of provision within the early years sector remains high and, as of 31 March 2021, 96% of providers on the Ofsted Early Years Register were judged good or outstanding, which is a substantial increase from 74% in 2012. Ofsted are responsible for monitoring the quality of provision.</p><p>We continue to monitor the sufficiency of childcare through regular attendance data collection and monitoring the open or closed status of providers. We also discuss sufficiency of provision in our regular conversations with local authorities. Local authorities are not currently reporting any significant sufficiency or supply issues and we have not seen any significant number of parents unable to secure a childcare place, either this term or since early years settings re-opened fully on 1 June 2020.</p><p>Ofsted data shows that as of March 2021 the number of childcare places available on the Early Years Register has remained broadly stable since August 2015.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 29/09/2021 08:51:40 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4618 label Biography information for Liz Twist

1357309

registered interest
date	21/09/2021
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Pre-school Education: Finance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on funding for early years services.
tabling member constituency	Blaydon
tabling member printed	Liz Twist
uin	52577
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/09/2021 answer text <p>We are making our usual preparations for the imminent Spending Review, which will set departmental budgets for all financial years from 2022-23 to 2024-25.</p><p>Ministers and officials from the department will continue to have discussions with HM Treasury as the Spending Review progresses.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 29/09/2021 08:53:20 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4618 label Biography information for Liz Twist

1357334

registered interest
date	21/09/2021
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Special Educational Needs: Reviews
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when his Department plans to publish the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities review.
tabling member constituency	Barnsley Central
tabling member printed	Dan Jarvis
uin	52500
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/10/2021 answer text <p>The special educational needs and disability (SEND) Review was set up to improve the outcomes for children and young people with SEND, with a focus on targeting and distributing resources in a way that best ensures children’s needs are met quickly and effectively.</p><p>The Department for Education is working with a range of partners including children and young people with SEND, the Children’s Commissioner, parents and carers, system leaders, SEND sector organisations, representatives from educational establishments and many others.</p><p>Proposals are being developed and we will consult publicly on them. We are not yet in a position to provide a firm date for the publication of proposals but are looking to do so as soon as possible.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 18/10/2021 16:15:32 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4243 label Biography information for Dan Jarvis