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1348023

	registered interest
	date	19/07/2021
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Special Educational Needs
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to support local authorities to meet their statutory targets for Education, Health and Care plan assessment waiting times.
	tabling member constituency	Crawley
	tabling member printed	Henry Smith
	uin	35600
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/07/2021 answer text <p>The special educational needs and disability (SEND) code of practice makes clear that local authorities must give their decision in response to any request for an education, health and care needs assessment within a maximum of 6 weeks from when the request was received or the point at which a child or young person was brought to the local authority’s attention.</p><p>We have been using data to provide challenge and support to those local authorities where there are long-standing delays. Additionally, because of circumstances relating to the COVID-19 outbreak, we are carrying out monthly surveys of local authority performance. Our teams of SEND Advisers, and colleagues in NHS England, are working with local authorities to help improve performance. Each year, we also deliver a training programme to local authorities, health, and social care staff on their statutory duties for education, health and care plans and reviews, and we have continued to do this on a virtual basis.</p><p>Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) re-started their revisit programme to areas that received a Written Statement of Action in May, with the full inspection programme re-starting in June. We are continuing to provide support and challenge to individual local authorities with a Written Statement of Action. We have commissioned the CQC and Ofsted, with the support of the Department of Health and Social Care, to develop a new area SEND inspection framework to launch after the existing cycle has finished.</p><p>Furthermore, we are providing over £42 million in the 2021/22 financial year to continue funding projects to support children with SEND. This investment will ensure that specialist organisations around the country can continue to help strengthen local area performance, support families, and provide practical support to schools and colleges.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Chelmsford answering member printed Vicky Ford question first answered 26/07/2021 13:17:01 answering member 4674 label Biography information for Vicky Ford
	tabling member	3960 label Biography information for Henry Smith

1179302

	registered interest
	date	21/02/2020
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Young People: Carers
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that young carers and their families are (a) identified and (b) adequately supported so that those young people can be helped to achieve at school.
	tabling member constituency	Crawley
	tabling member printed	Henry Smith
	uin	18575
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/02/2020 answer text <p>The government is committed to supporting young carers so that they are properly protected from excessive or inappropriate caring responsibilities and are supported to achieve their full potential. Consistent identification remains challenging, with many being ‘hidden’ and therefore unrecognised and/or unsupported.</p><p>Changes through the Children and Families Act 2014 simplified the legislation relating to young adult carers’ assessments, making rights and duties clearer to both young people and practitioners. This included promoting whole family approaches which triggers both and adult support services into action – assessing why a child is caring, what needs to change and what would help the family to prevent children or young people from taking on this responsibility in the first place.</p><p> </p><p>The Department for Education also provides schools with £2.4 billion each year in additional funding through the pupil premium to support disadvantaged pupils. We expect schools to make effective use of their pupil premium budgets. Schools know their pupils best and will spend the grant accordingly to meet pupil needs, which includes where needs are based on a parent’s health issues or disability.</p><p> </p><p>We published the Children in Need Review conclusion in 2019. This sets out our approach to helping schools and children’s social care improve the educational outcomes of children in need, including those young carers assessed as being in need of help and protection.</p> answering member constituency Chelmsford answering member printed Vicky Ford question first answered 28/02/2020 16:33:46 answering member 4674 label Biography information for Vicky Ford
	tabling member	3960 label Biography information for Henry Smith

1463487

	registered interest
	date	17/05/2022
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	STEM Subjects: Apprentices
	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 impact of 19,000 apprentices contributions in the aerospace, defence, security and space sectors on the promotion of STEM throughout the UK.
	tabling member constituency	Crawley
	tabling member printed	Henry Smith
	uin	3560
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/05/2022 answer text <p>The department recognises the critical value of science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) in driving the economy and productivity. Ensuring that anyone, regardless of their background, can pursue a career in a STEM occupation is a key priority for this government.</p><p>Apprenticeships are a great way for people to receive high-quality training and begin, or progress in, a successful STEM career. The department has put employers at the heart of our apprenticeship system, empowering them to design the standards they need with the help of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education. There are over 340 employer-designed apprenticeship standards in STEM, including Cyber Security Technician at level 3, Space Engineer Technician at level 4 and Aero Space Engineer (degree) at level 6.</p><p>It is encouraging to see that in the 2021/22 academic year, there were 66,000 apprenticeship starts in STEM, making up 32.3% of all apprenticeship starts that year.</p><p>The department continues to promote apprenticeships in schools through the Apprenticeship Support &amp; Knowledge programme and is working with our Apprenticeship Diversity Champions Network of influential employers such as Siemens, Bombardier, and Rolls-Royce to promote best practices in recruiting and retaining people from all backgrounds in STEM apprenticeships.</p> answering member constituency Brentwood and Ongar answering member printed Alex Burghart question first answered 24/05/2022 11:41:27 answering member 4613 label Biography information for Alex Burghart
	tabling member	3960 label Biography information for Henry Smith

1360380

	registered interest
	date	15/10/2021
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Education: Boys
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 4 June 2021 to Question 10325 on Education: Gender, what additional steps his Department is planning to take to help improve the average outcomes for boys to match those of girls given that the gender learning gap remains high at KS2 and KS4 levels.
	tabling member constituency	Crawley
	tabling member printed	Henry Smith
	uin	56968
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/10/2021 answer text <p>The department does not design education policy that exclusively targets certain groups of pupils with characteristics that are protected by the Equality Act 2010, including policy based on gender. We are committed to providing high quality education and training for everyone, whatever their background or personal characteristics.</p><p>Since 2010, the government has pursued a reform agenda to drive up academic standards for all and level up for the most disadvantaged pupils. When it comes to raising standards, evidence shows that teachers are the most important in-school factor affecting pupils’ education. In June 2021, the department announced an investment of over £250 million in the National Professional Qualifications and Early Career Framework programmes which are based on the best available evidence and have been developed in partnership with the Education Endowment Foundation. In addition, in October the department announced a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 tax-free for maths, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in years 1 to 5 of their careers. This will support recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in these subjects and in the schools and areas that need them most. Through this, the department is committed to helping tackle the education gap for all pupils.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Worcester answering member printed Mr Robin Walker question first answered 26/10/2021 16:37:27 answering member 4091 label Biography information for Mr Robin Walker
	tabling member	3960 label Biography information for Henry Smith

1682994

	registered interest
	date	17/01/2024
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Aviation: Training
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she will consider designating pilot flight training as a higher educational course for the purpose of student loans.
	tabling member constituency	Crawley
	tabling member printed	Henry Smith
	uin	10090
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/01/2024 answer text <p>The courses designated for Higher Education student finance are set out in secondary legislation.To attract funding, students studying in England must generally be undertaking a course leading to a designated qualification at a provider registered with the Office for Students (OfS).</p><p> </p><p>Registration with the OfS is a requirement in place to provide assurance to the Secretary of State for Education that students are receiving a high-quality academic experience and value for money.</p><p> </p><p>Flying schools are welcome to apply to be on the OfS register. The funding available for designated programmes, which include pilot training, does not normally extend to costs associated with the commercial pilot’s licence and flying experience.</p> answering member constituency Harlow answering member printed Robert Halfon question first answered 24/01/2024 17:03:12 answering member 3985 label Biography information for Robert Halfon
	tabling member	3960 label Biography information for Henry Smith

1649732

	registered interest
	date	03/07/2023
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Education: Boys
	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 take steps to implement large-scale evaluation of the interventions aimed at increasing boys' learning in educational settings.
	tabling member constituency	Crawley
	tabling member printed	Henry Smith
	uin	192067
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/07/2023 answer text <p>The Government is committed to improving outcomes for all pupils no matter their gender, and raising attainment for pupils is at the heart of this Government’s agenda.</p><p>The Department funds and supports large scale evaluation and research into improving education and attainment through the Educational Endowment Foundation (EEF), which aims to build a high quality evidence base on what is proven to be successful in education practice, and to support schools, colleges and early years providers to access and effectively mobilise this evidence to raise attainment of disadvantaged 2 to 19 year olds. The Department recently re-endowed the EEF with £137 million in 2022 to continue to build the evidence base until at least 2032. This funding will cement the EEF’s role as a central, long-term feature of the education landscape for at least the next decade.</p><p>Evidence from formal assessments, and recent reports from the Education Policy Institute and Rising Stars showed that attainment for all pupils, including boys, fell during the COVID-19 pandemic.</p><p>Between its introduction in 2012 and the last assessments before the pandemic in 2019, attainment in the phonics screening check has increased significantly for boys and girls. In 2019, 78% of boys and 85% of girls met the expected standard by Year 1, compared to 54% of boys and 62% of girls in 2012. In 2022, following the pandemic, attainment in the phonics screening check was down by 6% for both boys and girls. 72% of boys met the expected standard compared to 79% of girls.</p><p>At Key Stage 2, the proportion of pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics increased between 2016 and the last assessments before the pandemic in 2019. 65% of pupils met the expected standard in all three subjects in 2019 (60% of boys, 70% of girls), compared to 53% in 2016 (50% of boys, 56% of girls). In 2022, following the pandemic, attainment fell among both girls and boys in all subjects except reading. However, the fall was slightly larger for girls. Girls continue to outperform boys in all subjects except mathematics.</p><p>At Key Stage 4 more girls enter the full English Baccalaureate than boys, and girls continue to do better than boys across all headline attainment measures. The gap for the percentage achieving grades 5 and above in English and mathematics has narrowed from 6.6% in 2018/19 and 7.6% in 2020/21, to 5.7% in 2021/22. The widening between 2019 and 2021 was driven by girls seeing a larger increase (9.2% vs 8.2%), but the narrowing to 2022 was caused by girls having a larger decrease than boys (3.1% vs 1.2%).</p><p>In response to this, the Department is continuing to take action to support schools, including increasing core schools funding at the Autumn Statement 2022. The additional funding announced in the Autumn Statement will mean that the core schools budget is a net £2 billion higher than published at Spending Review 2021 in each of 2023/24 and 2024/25.</p><p>The Department continues to deliver the proposals set out in the Schools White Paper, which aim to improve outcomes for all pupils, including boys. This includes providing an excellent teacher for every child, securing high standards in curriculum, behaviour and attendance, and providing targeted support for every pupil who needs it.</p><p>For teachers, the Department remains committed to delivering £30,000 starting salaries to attract and retain the very best teachers. In addition, the Department will deliver 500,000 teacher training and development opportunities by the end of 2024 and have recently announced a £181 million incentive package for initial teacher training. This package of support will secure more high quality teaching, which is the single most important in school factor on attainment.</p><p>The Department continues to promote the use of phonics (supported by the English Hubs Programme) and support schools to offer a high quality, knowledge rich curriculum, both of which are critical to ensuring boys are able to achieve well in later life. The Government has also transformed the way mathematics is taught in schools based on the best available international evidence, including approaches from the highest performing countries in the world. Reform of the mathematics curriculum was accompanied by the introduction of a National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics, which is now working with a network of 40 mathematics hubs to help local schools improve the quality of their teaching through the £100 million Teaching for Mastery programme. In addition, the Government has established the Oak National Academy, setting aside up to £43 million over the next three years to support it to provide high quality resources to schools.</p><p>The Department continues to support schools through the Pupil Premium, National Tutoring Programme and Recovery Premium. More than £1 billion is available to support tutoring up to 2023/24, with a further £1 billion of Recovery Premium funding in the 2022/23 and 2023/24 academic years.</p><p>The Department continues to assess the impact of these specific programmes where possible and to consider their combined impact on attainment outcomes for pupils overall, alongside the large scale research and evaluation of the EEF.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 11/07/2023 15:05:33 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
	tabling member	3960 label Biography information for Henry Smith

1132432

	registered interest
	date	17/06/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Literacy: Children
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he made of the implications for his Department's policies of the recent National Literacy Trust findings on the literacy benefits of children reading both digital and print formats.
	tabling member constituency	Crawley
	tabling member printed	Henry Smith
	uin	265486
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/06/2019 answer text <p>The Department welcomes the National Literacy Trust’s research on reading in both print and digital forms.</p><p> </p><p>The Department encourages children to develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information, whatever the format. Research suggests that reading for pleasure is more important for children’s educational development than their parents’ level of education.</p><p> </p><p>There is sound evidence that systematic synthetic phonics is a highly effective method of teaching reading to children. Phonics performance is improving: in 2018, there were 163,000 more 6 year olds on track to become fluent readers compared to 2012. This represented 82% of pupils meeting the expected standard in the phonics screening check, compared to just 58% when the check was introduced in 2012.</p><p> </p><p>Building on the success of our phonics partnerships and phonics roadshows programmes, in 2018 we launched a £26.3 million English Hubs Programme. Hub schools are taking a leading role in improving the teaching of early reading through systematic synthetic phonics, early language development, and reading for pleasure. We have appointed 34 primary schools across England as English Hubs.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 25/06/2019 15:38:42 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
	tabling member	3960 label Biography information for Henry Smith

1329395

	registered interest
	date	04/06/2021
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Education: Gender
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to tackle the learning gap between girls and boys.
	tabling member constituency	Crawley
	tabling member printed	Henry Smith
	uin	10325
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/06/2021 answer text <p>The Department recognises, and continues to monitor, the educational attainment gap between girls and boys. We have worked hard over the last decade to embed the reforms needed to raise standards for all children. Thanks to these efforts, the proportion of schools now rated by Ofsted as Good or Outstanding has risen from 68% in 2010 to 86% in 2020.</p><p>The Department does not design education policy that exclusively targets certain groups of pupils, including policy based on gender. We are committed to providing high quality education and training for everyone, regardless of their background.</p><p>When it comes to raising standards, evidence shows that teachers are the most important in-school factor affecting pupils’ education. The Department has recently announced an investment of over £250 million in our National Professional Qualifications and Early Career Framework programmes which are based on the best available evidence and have been developed in partnership with the Education Endowment Foundation. Through this, the Department is committed to helping tackle the educational attainment gap for all pupils.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 21/06/2021 15:25:43 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
	tabling member	3960 label Biography information for Henry Smith

1343720

	registered interest
	date	05/07/2021
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Education: Gender
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to Answer of 21 June 2021 to Question 10325 on Education: Gender and with reference to the attainment gap between girl and boys, if he will design education policy to target pupils who are falling behind in their attainment to help close the attainment gap between boys and girls in education.
	tabling member constituency	Crawley
	tabling member printed	Henry Smith
	uin	27128
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/07/2021 answer text <p>The Department recognises, and continues to monitor, the educational attainment gap between girls and boys. We do not design education policy that exclusively targets certain groups of pupils based on gender. The Department is focused on providing world class education and training for everyone, whatever their background.</p><p>The Government recognises that extended school and college restrictions have had a substantial impact on children and young people’s education and is committed to helping pupils catch up. The Department has announced over £3 billion to support education recovery and pupil premium is providing over £2.5 billion in the 2021/22 financial year targeted at disadvantaged pupils.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 13/07/2021 14:24:59 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
	tabling member	3960 label Biography information for Henry Smith

1546354

	registered interest
	date	29/11/2022
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Schools: Defibrillators
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her planned timetable is for opening the tendering process for the supply of defibrillators for schools.
	tabling member constituency	Crawley
	tabling member printed	Henry Smith
	uin	98714
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/12/2022 answer text <p>The Department has completed a compliant tendering process for the supply of defibrillators for schools through Crown Commercial Services Framework RM6157.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 06/12/2022 16:28:03 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
	tabling member	3960 label Biography information for Henry Smith