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1714963

registered interest
date	30/04/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Free School Meals: Education
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of free school meals on educational attainment.
tabling member constituency	Preston
tabling member printed	Sir Mark Hendrick
uin	24191
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/05/2024 answer text <p>The department has not recently made a formal assessment of the links between free school meals and educational outcomes.</p><p><br>Nutritious food plays an important role in the development of healthy eating habits and ensures that pupils can concentrate and learn. That is why the department spends over £1 billion annually providing free meals to the greatest ever proportion of school children. Over one third of children are now eligible for free school meals, compared to one in six in 2010. This increase has been driven by the introduction of Universal Infant Free School Meals in 2014, as well as the department’s generous Universal Credit transitional protections put in place in 2018.</p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds question first answered 09/05/2024 16:17:12 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
tabling member	473 label Biography information for Sir Mark Hendrick

1713474

registered interest
date	24/04/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Special Educational Needs
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps her Department has taken to increase the number of places for (a) children with autism and (b) children with special needs in schools.
tabling member constituency	Preston
tabling member printed	Sir Mark Hendrick
uin	23389
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/05/2024 answer text <p>In March 2024, the department announced trusts to run 30 new special free schools, which included 17 designated to cater for pupils with autism. The Spring Budget announced funding for 15 special free schools. The department will announce the location of these new schools in May.</p><p>In March the department also published just under £850 million of High Needs Provision Capital Allocations for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 financial years. This funding forms part of our transformational investment of £2.6 billion in new high needs provision between 2022 and 2025. Local authorities can use the funding to deliver new places in mainstream and special schools, as well as other specialist settings, and to improve the suitability and accessibility of existing buildings.</p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston question first answered 02/05/2024 16:56:54 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
tabling member	473 label Biography information for Sir Mark Hendrick

1713475

registered interest
date	24/04/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Pupil Premium
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of not increasing pupil premium funding in line with inflation on disadvantaged students.
tabling member constituency	Preston
tabling member printed	Sir Mark Hendrick
uin	23390
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/04/2024 answer text <p>Pupil premium funding is rising to over £2.9 billion in 2024/25, an increase of around £90 million from 2023 to 2024. In 2024/25 the pupil premium funding rate for primary pupils is £1,480, and £1,050 for secondary pupils. Looked-after, and previously looked-after, children attract a higher rate of £2,570.</p><p> </p><p>These rates for 2024/25 were an increase of 1.7% on those for 2023/24. This increase was in line with inflation as measured by the GDP deflator forecasts when the rates were announced for 2024/25. As the inflation forecast for 2024/25 has since reduced, the increase in pupil premium rates of 1.7% is now higher than the latest inflation forecast.</p><p> </p><p>This increase ensures that this target funding continues to help schools to support disadvantaged pupils and close attainment gaps.</p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds question first answered 30/04/2024 14:05:43 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
tabling member	473 label Biography information for Sir Mark Hendrick

1713517

registered interest
date	24/04/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Special Educational Needs
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 tackle the backlog in issuing education, health and care (EHC) plans for children; and whether she plans to make an assessment of the impact of delays on the (a) short and (b) long term development of children.
tabling member constituency	Preston
tabling member printed	Sir Mark Hendrick
uin	23392
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/05/2024 answer text <p>Where local authorities are failing to deliver consistent outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) – including failing to produce timely Education, Health and Care (EHC) assessments – the department will work with them using a range of improvement programmes and SEND specialist advisors to address weaknesses.</p><p> </p><p>The department’s SEND and alternative provision (AP) Improvement Plan recognised the need to reduce delays in children and young people receiving timely assessments and support and has a clear focus on early intervention. Through the SEND and AP Change Programme, the department is testing a range of reforms to improve the EHC plan process, including standardised templates and guidance, the use of multi-agency panels to improve decision-making, digital reforms, and strengthened mediation arrangements.</p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston question first answered 02/05/2024 16:54:42 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
tabling member	473 label Biography information for Sir Mark Hendrick

1700014

registered interest
date	12/04/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Sign Language: Education
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing free access to British sign language classes for the (a) parents and (b) caregivers of all newly-identified deaf children.
tabling member constituency	Preston
tabling member printed	Sir Mark Hendrick
uin	20888
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/04/2024 answer text <p>The Adult Education Budget (AEB) targets a wide range of eligible individuals including parents and caregivers of all newly-identified deaf children.</p><p>The Adult Education Budget (AEB) funds qualifications in, or focussing on, British Sign Language (BSL) up to and including Level 2. Approximately 60% of the AEB has been devolved to Mayoral Combined Authorities and the Greater London Authority, who determine which provision to fund for learners who live in their areas. The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) provides the remaining funding for learners who live in non-devolved areas, which includes Preston Constituency.</p><p>ESFA funded AEB qualifications include, for example, the Level 1 Award in BSL, which allows learners to communicate in BSL on a range of topics that involve simple, everyday language use, thereby giving them the basic skills and confidence in production and reception of BSL. It will depend on an individual’s circumstances as to whether they are entitled to free provision or expected to meet part of the cost through co-funding. Where community learning providers offer BSL courses, those providers are responsible for determining the course fees, including levels of fee remission.</p><p>For parents learning BSL on an AEB funded course, there is also additional support available. The AEB provides funding to colleges and providers to help adult learners overcome barriers preventing them from accessing learning. Providers have discretion to help learners meet costs such as transport, accommodation, books, equipment and childcare. Learning support funding also helps colleges and training providers to meet the additional needs of learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities and the costs of reasonable adjustments as set out in the Equality Act 2010.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Thornbury and Yate answering member printed Luke Hall question first answered 22/04/2024 15:34:28 answering member 4450 label Biography information for Luke Hall
tabling member	473 label Biography information for Sir Mark Hendrick

1698872

registered interest
date	26/03/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Free School Meals: Disability
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of the reasons for which some disabled children cannot (a) eat and (b) access free school meals; and whether she plans to make reasonable adjustments to free school meals to help disabled children to access them.
tabling member constituency	Preston
tabling member printed	Sir Mark Hendrick
uin	20526
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/04/2024 answer text <p>All schools have duties under the Equality Act 2010 towards individual disabled children and young people, and they must make reasonable adjustments to prevent them being put at a substantial disadvantage. This means that a school cannot treat a pupil unfairly as a consequence of their disability.</p><p>As it relates to school food, the duty to make reasonable adjustments requires schools to tailor their provision to ensure that it is accessible to disabled pupils. Furthermore, this duty is anticipatory, and so schools need to actively consider whether any reasonable adjustments are needed in order to avoid any disadvantage that may otherwise occur.</p><p>The department has updated its existing guidance on free school meals to clarify schools’ duties to make reasonable adjustments for disabled children, and to support productive conversations between schools and parents about suitable food provision. The guidance can be found here: <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65fdad5965ca2f00117da947/Free_school_meals.pdf" target="_blank">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65fdad5965ca2f00117da947/Free_school_meals.pdf</a>.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds question first answered 16/04/2024 13:23:17 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
tabling member	473 label Biography information for Sir Mark Hendrick

1697079

registered interest
date	19/03/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Nurseries: North West
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 increase nursery staff in the North West, in the context of the Government's plans to expand the number of free childcare places.
tabling member constituency	Preston
tabling member printed	Sir Mark Hendrick
uin	19260
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/03/2024 answer text <p>By the 2027/28 financial year, the government will expect to be spending in excess of £8 billion every year on free hours and early education, helping working families with their childcare costs. This represents the single biggest investment in childcare in England ever.</p><p> </p><p>In February, the department launched a new national recruitment campaign for the early years and childcare sector, ‘Do something BIG. Work with small children’, and a financial incentives pilot. Eligible joiners and returners will receive a tax-free payment of up to £1,000. This followed the introduction of workforce flexibilities to the Early Years Foundation Stage in January.</p><p> </p><p>The department has also introduced Skills Bootcamps for Early Years, which will create a pathway to accelerated Level 3 Early Years Apprenticeships. The number of paid childcare staff in 2023 is estimated at 347,300 compared to 334,400 paid childcare staff in 2022, an increase of 3.86%. Additionally, the department has invested up to £180 million in providing an early years education recovery package of workforce training, qualifications and support and guidance for the early years sector. This includes additional places for early years initial teacher training (EYITT), and new level 3 qualifications criteria for early years educators to ensure higher quality training and better care for children. The new criteria will come into effect from September 2024.</p><p> </p><p>For the North West, the total number of staff working in group and school based providers has increased from 39,394 in 2018 to 42,027 in 2023, an increase of 6.68%.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston question first answered 27/03/2024 16:38:10 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
tabling member	473 label Biography information for Sir Mark Hendrick

1683485

registered interest
date	18/01/2024
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Schools: Absenteeism
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 help reduce school absenteeism in Lancashire.
tabling member constituency	Preston
tabling member printed	Sir Mark Hendrick
uin	10380
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/01/2024 answer text <p>The department has a comprehensive national attendance strategy to ensure that every child attends school every day in all regions of the country.</p><p>This includes the recently expanded attendance hubs programme. There are now a total of almost 2,000 schools, including nine schools in Lancashire, who have been assigned a hub to tackle persistent absence, reaching around 1 million pupils. Attendance hubs are led by senior leaders in schools with effective attendance practice as a way for them to share practical approaches and resources for improving attendance.</p><p>The department published guidance on working together to improve school attendance to ensure that all local authorities and schools, including those in Lancashire, work together to reduce school absenteeism. The guidance is available at: <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1099677/Working_together_to_improve_school_attendance.pdf" target="_blank">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1099677/Working_together_to_improve_school_attendance.pdf</a>.</p><p>Local authorities, including Lancashire, are expected to rigorously track local attendance data to devise a strategic approach to attendance. In addition, all schools in all regions are required to have an attendance policy and to appoint an attendance champion who is responsible for enforcing this. To help identify children at risk of persistent absence and to enable early intervention, the department established a timelier flow of pupil level attendance data through the daily attendance data collection.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds question first answered 26/01/2024 12:36:41 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
tabling member	473 label Biography information for Sir Mark Hendrick

1663355

registered interest
date	13/10/2023
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Bus Services: Schools
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to increase funding to local authorities for the provision of free bus travel to schools.
tabling member constituency	Preston
tabling member printed	Sir Mark Hendrick
uin	201209
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/10/2023 answer text <p>The Department’s school travel policy aims to make sure that no pupil is prevented from accessing education by a lack of transport. Local Authorities must arrange free home to school travel for pupils of compulsory school age who attend their nearest school and would not be able to walk there because of the distance, their special educational needs, disability or mobility problem, or because the nature of the route means it would be unsafe for them to do so. There are extended rights to free travel for pupils from low income families. In the 2021/22 financial year (the most recent year for which data is currently available), Local Authorities spent £1.4 billion on home to school travel for pupils of compulsory school age.</p><p>The majority of central Government funding for home to school travel is made available to Local Authorities through the Local Government Finance Settlement (LGFS) administered by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC). DLUHC will bring forward proposals for the Local Government Finance Settlement 2024/25 in the usual way later in the year. When finalising budgets, local Government spending will be carefully considered to ensure councils can continue to deliver vital services. This will include considering the effect of inflation and other wider economic circumstances. The local Government finance policy statement, published last December, sets out the measures expected to be maintained into 2024/25.</p><p>The Department additionally provides grant funding to Local Authorities as a contribution towards the cost of ‘extended rights’ travel, this is just under £45.8 million in the 2023/24 financial year.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 23/10/2023 10:55:29 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
tabling member	473 label Biography information for Sir Mark Hendrick

1625873

registered interest
date	05/05/2023
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Classroom Assistants and Teachers: Pay
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she is taking steps to provide above-inflation pay increases for teachers and school support staff.
tabling member constituency	Preston
tabling member printed	Sir Mark Hendrick
uin	183861
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/05/2023 answer text <p>The Department recognises teachers’ invaluable work in shaping future generations. This is why last year teachers were given the highest pay award in 30 years, up to 8.9% for new teachers, alongside a 5% award for experienced teachers and headteachers.</p><p>Looking to the next academic year, pay rises for teachers in 2023/24 must strike a careful balance between recruiting and retaining the best teachers and recognising their vital importance, alongside considering both affordability for schools and the wider economic context. On 21 February 2023, the Department published its written evidence to the School Teachers’ Review Body, giving its views and inputs to help them form their recommendations for teachers’ pay this year.</p><p>The Government provided funding for both mainstream schools and high needs, including the additional funding announced at the Autumn Statement 2022, which is £3.5 billion higher in 2023/24, compared to 2022/23. This will total £58.8 billion in 2024/25, the highest ever level in real terms per pupil. The Government provided these increases to school revenue budgets so that schools can cover cost increases in the year ahead, including teacher pay.</p><p>The Department knows challenges to recruitment and retention vary from subject to subject based on the demand in each area. Therefore, in addition to pay, there are several measures in place to tackle this, including: bursaries worth up to £27,000; scholarships worth up to £29,000 to encourage talented trainees to apply to train in key subjects such as chemistry, computing, mathematics, and physics; £20,000 tax-free bursary for biology trainees in 2023/24; reintroduction of a £15,000 tax-free bursary for English trainees in 2023/24 and a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 tax-free for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools.</p><p>The Government’s education reforms gave schools freedom to make their own decisions about budgets. For most staff, including teaching assistants, schools have the freedom to recruit according to their own circumstances and set pay and conditions.</p><p>Many schools pay teaching assistants according to Local Government pay scales. These are set through negotiations between the Local Government Association, which represents the employer, and Local Government trade unions (UNISON, Unite, and the GMB), which represent the employee. Central Government does not have any formal role in these matters.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 16/05/2023 13:39:54 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
tabling member	473 label Biography information for Sir Mark Hendrick