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1701976

	registered interest
	date	17/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Overseas Students
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential impact of the estimated 33 per cent fall in overseas students on the financial viability of UK universities.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Jones of Whitchurch
	uin	HL3891
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/04/2024 answer text <p>The government seeks to ensure that there is a fair and robust migration policy, whilst maintaining the UK’s place as a top destination for the best and brightest students from around the world. The department remains committed to the ambitions set out in the government’s International Education Strategy to host 600,000 international students per year and to increase the value of its education exports to £35 billion per year, both by 2030.</p><p> </p><p>The department expects the UK to remain a highly attractive study destination. The UK has four universities in the top ten, and 17 in the top 100. The UK has a highly sought after higher education (HE) experience, which is respected by students across the globe. The department is hugely proud to have met its international student recruitment ambition two years running.</p><p> </p><p>However, the level of legal migration remains too high. As a result, on 4 December 2023, the government announced a new package of measures to reduce net migration and curb abuse and exploitation of the country’s immigration system.</p><p> </p><p>Our universities are autonomous institutions responsible for managing their own budgets. The department works closely with the Office for Students, the independent regulator of the HE sector in England, to understand the evolving landscape including on risks relating to international students.</p><p> </p><p>It also continues to work closely with the Home Office, the Department for Business and Trade, and other governmental departments to assess the impact of these changes on HE providers.</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 29/04/2024 12:32:11 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
	tabling member	3792 label Biography information for Baroness Jones of Whitchurch

1701602

	registered interest
	date	16/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Apprentices: Taxation
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to change the apprenticeship levy and to grant firms more flexibility to use funds from the levy to skill up their workforce.
	tabling member printed	Lord Allen of Kensington
	uin	HL3833
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/04/2024 answer text <p>The apprenticeship levy supports employers of all sizes to invest in high-quality apprenticeship training, both for career starters as well as those looking to upskill or retrain.</p><p> </p><p>The success of the levy is enabling the department to invest £2.7 billion in apprenticeships in England in the 2024/25 financial year, and means that 98% of the English apprenticeships budget was spent over the 2021/22 and 2022/23 financial years. It is important that this funding remains protected to support apprenticeships. The government has no current plans to allow employers to spend the funds available to them on non-apprenticeships training. Allowing employers to use 50% of funds for non-apprenticeship training could create an additional cost of up to £1.5 billion a year. Without additional investment this could reduce apprenticeship starts to 140,000 a year, which would represent an almost 60% decrease on the 2022/23 academic year.</p><p> </p><p>This month the department increased the proportion of the funds that levy-paying employers can transfer from 25% to 50%. This gives levy-paying employers even greater flexibility in how they use the funds available to them while also supporting more apprenticeships in other businesses, including small and medium-sized enterprises, flexi-job apprenticeship agencies and charities.</p><p> </p><p>Employers can choose from almost 700 high-quality apprenticeships and have the option of using flexible training models, such as flexi-job apprenticeships and accelerated apprenticeships. Employers can also access other government-funded skills programmes, including T Levels and Skills Bootcamps.</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 29/04/2024 12:24:55 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
	tabling member	4304 label Biography information for Lord Allen of Kensington

1701600

	registered interest
	date	16/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Higher Education: Students
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to increase investment in skills training to meet the needs of more 150,000 additional students seeking higher education by 2030 in England.
	tabling member printed	Lord Allen of Kensington
	uin	HL3831
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/04/2024 answer text <p>It is important that the department has a sustainable higher education (HE) funding system that responds to the needs of the economy and that is fair to students and to taxpayers. The government keeps the HE funding system under continuous review to ensure that this remains the case, and to provide many different opportunities for learners to acquire vital skills.</p><p> </p><p>The government is committed to creating a world-leading skills system, backed with an additional investment of £3.8 billion over the course of this Parliament to strengthen HE and further education (FE). This includes increasing opportunities for people to develop higher technical skills through T Levels, Apprenticeships, Skills Bootcamps, or Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs). From 2025, the Lifelong Learning Entitlement will transform access to FE and HE, offering all adults the equivalent of four years’ worth of student loans to use flexibly on quality education training over their lifetime.</p><p> </p><p>Through the Strategic Priorities Grant (SPG), the department is investing hundreds of millions of pounds in additional funding over the three-year period to the 2024/25 financial year to support high-quality teaching and facilities, the majority of which goes to supporting the provision of courses in high-cost subjects including in science and engineering, subjects that support the NHS, and degree apprenticeships. This includes the largest increase in government funding for the HE sector to support students and teaching in over a decade. The recurrent SPG budget is £1,456 million for the 2024/25 financial year. This includes an £18 million increase in support for strategically important high-cost subjects.</p><p> </p><p>The department is also providing £40 million over two years through the SPG to support degree apprenticeship providers to expand and help more people access this provision. The department has seen year-on-year growth in degree level apprenticeships (Level 6 and 7) with almost 230,000 starts since their introduction in the 2014/15 academic year. The government has increased investment in the apprenticeships system in England to over £2.7 billion this financial year, to support employers of all sizes access high-quality apprenticeships at all levels.</p><p> </p><p>The department’s Higher Technical Education reforms are growing skills at Level 4 and 5. The department has introduced new HTQs, which will increase the prestige and uptake of level 4 and 5 qualifications. To date, 172 qualifications have been approved as HTQs across seven occupational routes and are being taught at FE Colleges, Institutes of Technology, Universities, and Independent Training Providers. The department has provided up to £115 million in funding to providers to help grow provision across the country, on top of up to £300 million to create a network of 21 Institutes of Technology.</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 29/04/2024 12:23:21 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
	tabling member	4304 label Biography information for Lord Allen of Kensington

1701615

	registered interest
	date	16/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Sure Start Programme
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Institute for Fiscal Studies report The short- and medium-term impacts of Sure Start on educational outcomes, published on 9 April, which found that access to a Sure Start centre in early years increased the early identification of a special educational need or disability and reduced the need for an Education, Health and Care Plan in later years, what steps they are taking to incorporate lessons from the Sure Start programme in their (1) Family Hubs policy, and (2) Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan.
	tabling member printed	The Lord Bishop of Leicester
	uin	HL3846
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/04/2024 answer text <p>The department welcomes the latest research from the Institute of Fiscal Studies on the impact of Sure Start. The family hub model builds on what was learned from Sure Start as well as on wider external evidence of the long-term benefits of early intervention. The model includes at its core the Start for Life offer with a prominent focus on babies and young children, encouraging engagement with the very youngest and their parents and including targeted services for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). It enables early identification of additional needs through integrated and connected service offers and provides funding for workforce training to better identify and respond to need in a co-ordinated way.</p><p>Family hubs bring together services for children of all ages and so respond to the needs of the whole family. The government is investing approximately £300 million across 75 local authorities to embed the family hub approach and enhance Start for Life services across the country for families with children aged 0-19 years, and or up to 25 years for those with SEND. On 10 January 2024, the government announced that every one of the 75 local authorities in the family hubs and Start for Life programme have now opened family hubs, creating a welcoming place where families can be connected to a wide range of services.</p><p>The department has developed guidance for participating local authorities. The Programme Guidance includes expectations on the support available to families who have children with SEND, in line with the recommendations in the SEND and alternative provision (AP) green paper. This includes staff in the family hub being knowledgeable about local SEND services and able to connect families to appropriate support – this could include for example SEND-appropriate parenting programmes, peer support for parents, short breaks, support for siblings or specialist health services. The Programme Guidance can be found here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/family-hubs-and-start-for-life-programme-local-authority-guide" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/family-hubs-and-start-for-life-programme-local-authority-guide</a>.</p><p>Last year, the department also published its SEND and AP Improvement Plan to outline its plans to ensure children and young people across England get high-quality, early support wherever they live in the country. This includes new national SEND and AP standards which will help families understand what support every child or young person should be receiving from early years through to further education.</p><p>The department is also funding training of up to 7,000 early years special educational needs co-ordinators who will learn how to identify and assess SEND and implement effective support so that children get the early support they deserve at the right time.</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 29/04/2024 12:20:50 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
	tabling member	4947 label Biography information for The Lord Bishop of Leicester

1700694

	registered interest
	date	15/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Students: Loans
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what is their most recent estimate of (1) the Resource Accounting and Budgeting charge, and (2) the estimated cost to Government of their support for the student finance system, based on future loan write-offs and interest subsidies, (a) in net present-value terms, and (b) as a proportion of the initial loan outlay.
	tabling member printed	Lord Johnson of Marylebone
	uin	HL3758
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/04/2024 answer text <p>In the 2022/23 financial year, the Resource Accounting and Budgeting (RAB) charge, which is the government subsidy on student loans, was £5.5 billion, or 27% of the £20.0 billion of loans issued that financial year.</p><p>Of student loans issued in 2023/24, the government is expected to subsidise about £5.6 billion, or:</p><ul><li>28% of full-time Plan 2 loans,</li><li>23% of part-time Plan 2 loans,</li><li>48% of Plan 2 Advanced Learner Loans,</li><li>27% of full-time Plan 5 loans,</li><li>19% of part-time Plan 5 loans,</li><li>37% of Plan 5 Advanced Learner Loans, and</li><li>0% of Master’s loans</li></ul><p> </p><p>These forecasts are subject to change. The next statistical publication on student finance forecasts, which will contain the final RAB figures for the 2023/24 financial year, will be available at the end of June 2024.</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 29/04/2024 11:14:22 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
	tabling member	4039 label Biography information for Lord Johnson of Marylebone

1700709

	registered interest
	date	15/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Schools: Sanitary Products
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of potential gaps in the provision of free period products in schools in England.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Verma
	uin	HL3815
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/04/2024 answer text <p>The Period Product Scheme is open to all state-funded primary schools, secondary schools and 16-19 organisations so that girls and women can have access to a wide range of period products in their place of study.</p><p>Take up of the scheme is monitored and reviewed regularly. Since its launch in January 2020, 99% of secondary schools and 94% of 16-19 organisations have used the scheme. Management information is published annually and can be found here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/period-products-scheme-management-information" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/period-products-scheme-management-information</a>. The national supplier, phs, makes contact with all eligible schools and colleges annually to advise them of the scheme and provide details on how to order.</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 29/04/2024 11:13:39 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
	tabling member	3790 label Biography information for Baroness Verma

1700700

	registered interest
	date	15/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Pupils: Databases
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government whether they give third parties access to national pupil data or learner records, and whether they charge a fee for any such access.
	tabling member printed	The Lord Bishop of Oxford
	uin	HL3779
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/04/2024 answer text <p>The department will only share pupil, or learner, level data with others where it is lawful, secure and ethical to do so. Where these conditions are met and data is shared, the department do not charge any fee.</p><p> </p><p>All requests for data from the department are subject to a robust approvals process where senior data experts assess all applications for public benefit, proportionality, legal underpinning and strict information security standards. The approvals process where senior data experts assess all applications is known as the DfE Data Sharing Approval Panel (DSAP). The DSAP panel also includes external members who scrutinise the ongoing decision making in order to increase public trust.</p><p> </p><p>As part of the department’s commitment to transparency, it publishes details of all organisations it has shared personal data with alongside a short description of the project. This publication is updated quarterly and is available from GOV.UK at the link below: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dfe-external-data-shares" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dfe-external-data-shares</a>.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 23/04/2024 14:51:30 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
	tabling member	4279 label Biography information for The Lord Bishop of Oxford

1700699

	registered interest
	date	15/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Education: Artificial Intelligence
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the future use of artificial intelligence in education using national pupil data or learner records.
	tabling member printed	The Lord Bishop of Oxford
	uin	HL3778
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/04/2024 answer text <p>The department has conducted research and has a work programme around artificial intelligence in education settings. To date, the department has not used national pupil data or learner records in setting the strategy for the department's work in this area.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 23/04/2024 14:50:27 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
	tabling member	4279 label Biography information for The Lord Bishop of Oxford

1698308

	registered interest
	date	25/03/2024
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Carers: Young People
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government, following statistics published on 21 March showing that the percentage of young carers who missed at least ten per cent of school is almost twice as high as that for pupils without caring responsibilities, what steps they are taking to improve the (1) identification of, and (2) support for, young carers in schools.
	tabling member printed	Lord Young of Cookham
	uin	HL3612
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/04/2024 answer text <p>Young carers make an enormous contribution by caring for their loved ones. The department wants to ensure young carers are supported in their education and can take advantage of opportunities beyond their caring responsibilities.</p><p>The department introduced The Young Carers (Needs Assessments) Regulations in 2015. This is an assessment of needs, conducted by the local authority which must consider whether it is appropriate or excessive for the child or young person to provide care for the person in question, in light of the young carer’s needs and wishes. It also helps to determine whether the care which the young carer provides, or intends to provide, impacts on the young carer’s well-being, education and development.</p><p>The department added young carers to the annual school census in 2023 for the first time and identified 38,983 young carers, raising their visibility in the school system and allowing schools to better identify and support their young carers. This is providing the department with strong evidence on both the numbers of young carers and their educational outcomes. This also provides an annual data collection to establish long-term trends.</p><p>As this is a new data collection, the department expects the quality of the data returns to improve over time as the collection becomes established. All schools (except nursery schools) must send this information as part of the spring school census. However, the recording and handling of the information is at the school’s discretion. 79% of schools recorded no young carers in 2023.</p><p>The department recognises that absence is often a symptom of other problems. The department has a comprehensive support-first strategy to improve attendance, which includes:</p><ul><li>Stronger expectations of schools, trusts and local authorities to work together to tackle absence, which is set out in guidance that will become statutory in August 2024.</li><li>An attendance data tool allowing early identification and intervention of pupils at risk of persistent absence, which will become mandatory from September 2024.</li><li>The Attendance Action Alliance of system leaders who are working to remove barriers to attendance.</li><li>Appointing Rob Tarn as the new national attendance ambassador to work with school leaders to champion attendance as well as ten expert Attendance Advisers to support local authorities and trusts.</li><li>Expanding the department’s attendance mentor pilot from 5 to 15 areas from September, backed by an additional £15 million and reaching 10,000 children.</li><li>Doubling the number of lead attendance hubs, bringing the total to 32 which will see nearly 2,000 schools supported to tackle persistent absence.</li><li>A national communications campaign aimed to highlight the benefits of attendance and target preventable odd days of absence linked to mild illness, mild anxiety and term-time holidays.</li></ul><p>The department is also building a system of family help by reforming children’s social care. The £45 million Families First for Children Pathfinder programme is testing how multi-disciplinary family help teams can improve the support that children, families and young carers receive.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 10/04/2024 11:06:43 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
	tabling member	57 label Biography information for Lord Young of Cookham

1699282

	registered interest
	date	27/03/2024
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	GCE A-level
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what are the latest available data on the number and percentage of students who left school after their A-levels to go into work; and what percentage of them received (1) 100 UCAS points or above in their A-levels, and (2) 150 UCAS points or above in their A-levels.
	tabling member printed	Lord Elliott of Mickle Fell
	uin	HL3669
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/04/2024 answer text <p>The department publishes information on the sustained destinations of students after 16-18 study, broken down by the level at which they studied. The table below gives the latest data on the number and percentage of students who were deemed to be at the end of 16-18 study in 2020/21 (2021 leavers) and their sustained destination in the 2021/22 academic year.</p><p><br> This is for students studying at level 3 and the number and percentage that went on to sustain an employment destination.</p><p> </p><p>The destinations data does not include information on students’ A level results or UCAS points. However, over three quarters of students who studied an approved level 3 qualification completed A Levels.</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td colspan="2"><p><strong>Sustained employment destinations of level 3 students from state-funded mainstream schools and colleges in England for the 2020/21 cohort of 16-18 leavers.</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p><strong>2021/22 destination year</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Number of level 3 students completing 16-18 study</strong></p></td><td><p>288,726</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Number of level 3 students with a sustained employment destination</strong></p></td><td><p>61,866</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Percentage of level 3 students with a sustained employment destination</strong></p></td><td><p>21.4%</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><ul><li>Sustained employment destination: in order to count as a sustained destination, the student must have six months of continuous employment activity between October and March in 2021/22.</li><li>The way the department decides when a student is at the end of 16 to 18 study has changed for the 2020/21 (2021 leavers) and comparisons to previous cohorts should be treated with extreme caution.</li><li>Total state-funded mainstream schools and colleges covers all state-funded mainstream schools, academies, free schools, city technology colleges, sixth-forms and other further education sector colleges. Excludes alternative provision, special schools, other government department funded colleges and independent schools.</li></ul> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 08/04/2024 15:16:29 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
	tabling member	5008 label Biography information for Lord Elliott of Mickle Fell