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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

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

1467366

	registered interest
	date	01/06/2022
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Special Educational Needs: Visual Impairment
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of the use of specialist professions for children with sight loss as part of the SEND review.
	tabling member constituency	Crawley
	tabling member printed	Henry Smith
	uin	11643
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/06/2022 answer text <p>In the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Green Paper, the department announced it would establish a single, national SEND and AP system. This will set clear standards for provision, processes and systems, clear roles and responsibilities, and set strengthened accountabilities at every level to drive up outcomes and improve consistency for children and young people with SEND.</p><p>The proposals aim to drive national consistency in how needs are assessed, identified, and met across education, health, and care through the introduction of national standards. These are intended to provide clarity and consistency in the types of support that should be available for children and young people with SEND or those who require AP, including access to specialist professionals.</p><p>The department knows the value that mainstream schools place on high-quality, accessible specialist advice. This includes advice from educational psychologists and qualified teachers of visually impaired children and young people. The SEND and AP Green Paper sets out the department’s vision for an inclusive education system to ensure that all children and young people, including those with sight loss, have timely access to specialist services and support.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince grouped question UIN 11644 question first answered 16/06/2022 17:12:29 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	3960 label Biography information for Henry Smith

1467367

	registered interest
	date	01/06/2022
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Special Educational Needs: Standards
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to include a right to access specialist professionals, such as habilitation workers, in the planned SEND national standards.
	tabling member constituency	Crawley
	tabling member printed	Henry Smith
	uin	11644
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/06/2022 answer text <p>In the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Green Paper, the department announced it would establish a single, national SEND and AP system. This will set clear standards for provision, processes and systems, clear roles and responsibilities, and set strengthened accountabilities at every level to drive up outcomes and improve consistency for children and young people with SEND.</p><p>The proposals aim to drive national consistency in how needs are assessed, identified, and met across education, health, and care through the introduction of national standards. These are intended to provide clarity and consistency in the types of support that should be available for children and young people with SEND or those who require AP, including access to specialist professionals.</p><p>The department knows the value that mainstream schools place on high-quality, accessible specialist advice. This includes advice from educational psychologists and qualified teachers of visually impaired children and young people. The SEND and AP Green Paper sets out the department’s vision for an inclusive education system to ensure that all children and young people, including those with sight loss, have timely access to specialist services and support.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince grouped question UIN 11643 question first answered 16/06/2022 17:12:29 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	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

1462787

	registered interest
	date	13/05/2022
	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, with reference to the Answer of 27 April 2022 to Question 156423 on special educational needs, if his Department will take steps to (a) intervene when service providers do not meet their legal duties to families with disabled children and (b) provide redress in those cases to affected families.
	tabling member constituency	Crawley
	tabling member printed	Henry Smith
	uin	1500
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/05/2022 answer text <p>Children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are a priority and where a local area is deemed to be underperforming, either by way of inspection or concerns raised, the department will not hesitate to intervene in cases of systemic and/or persistent failure. For example, we may issue a formal improvement notice or use powers under Section 497A of the Education Act 1996 to issue a statutory direction directing the council to take any further actions we deem necessary, which may include requiring the responsible local authority to work with a SEND commissioner.</p><p>Where families wish to seek redress or otherwise resolve disagreements about Education, Health and Care needs assessments or plans, they have the option to do so via disagreement resolution, mediation, or by registering an appeal with the first-tier tribunal (SEND). The department is currently consulting on proposals to strengthen this system in the SEND and AP Green Paper.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 23/05/2022 10:05:07 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	3960 label Biography information for Henry Smith

1458742

	registered interest
	date	20/04/2022
	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, how (a) local authorities and (b) other commissioners and service provides will be held to account if they fail to meet their legal duties in respect of support to children with SEND and their families.
	tabling member constituency	Crawley
	tabling member printed	Henry Smith
	uin	156423
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/04/2022 answer text <p>It firmly remains a priority for my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, that local authorities and other providers fulfil their statutory duties in providing the right support at the right time for children and young people with SEND and their families. The Secretary of State is committed to holding them to account where these statutory obligations are not met.</p><p>From May 2016, Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) began inspecting local areas (including local authorities and other commissioners and service providers) on their effectiveness in fulfilling their duties for children and young people who have SEND.</p><p>Under the current framework, Area SEND inspections consider how effectively the local area identifies and meets the needs of different groups of children and young people who have special educational needs or a disability, as defined in the Children and Families Act 2014 and set out in the SEND Code of Practice. The inspections also consider how effectively the local area improves the outcomes of these children and young people. They may also provide evidence for local areas to receive appropriate external support and intervention.</p><p>The department has commissioned 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 inspection cycle has finished. Taking account of learning from the first cycle, this framework will include a greater focus on the experience of children and young people with SEND and their families and give more prominence to the quality integration and commissioning of education, health, and care services.</p><p>The SEND and AP Green Paper proposes to strengthen accountability measures, including through Ofsted and CQC inspections and strengthened oversight via the department's new Regions Group.</p><p><strong><br> </strong></p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 27/04/2022 11:24:54 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	3960 label Biography information for Henry Smith

1439845

	registered interest
	date	10/03/2022
	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, if he will make it his policy to require every school to have a defibrillator.
	tabling member constituency	Crawley
	tabling member printed	Henry Smith
	uin	138019
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/03/2022 answer text <p>I refer my hon. Friend, the Member for Crawley, to the answer I gave on 2 December 2021 to Question <a href="https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2021-11-22/79483" target="_blank">79483</a><strong>.</strong></p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 18/03/2022 13:09:18 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	3960 label Biography information for Henry Smith

1366950

	registered interest
	date	08/11/2021
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Primary Education: Teachers
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what (a) steps his Department is taking and (b) incentives his Department is offering to help increase the proportion of male teachers in primary education.
	tabling member constituency	Crawley
	tabling member printed	Henry Smith
	uin	71313
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/11/2021 answer text <p>Schools should reflect society and the communities they serve, and it is important to attract and retain high-skilled, talented men into teaching.</p><p>The department does this through effective pay structures and by ensuring teaching remains a financially rewarding career. We remain committed to increasing teacher starting salaries to £30,000 to make teaching an attractive graduate option. While the pay restraint in academic year 2021/22 means we are now delivering this commitment to a revised timescale, the 5.5% uplift to starting pay in September 2020 has already made a substantial difference to the competitiveness of the early career pay offer.</p><p>The department’s ‘Teaching – Every Lesson Shapes A Life’ recruitment campaign is targeted at audiences of students, recent graduates and potential career changers regardless of gender, and we take every effort to ensure that our advertising is fully reflective of this across the full range of marketing materials we use.</p><p>In October, Apply for Teacher Training (Apply), our new application service for initial teacher training (ITT) in England, was rolled out nationally. Apply has been designed to be user-friendly and has been extensively tested with a diverse range of potential applicants, including men, to ensure it helps remove barriers to great teachers applying for ITT courses. Apply will also allow us to collect more data, giving us greater insight into candidate behaviour and the behaviour of providers of teacher training so that the department can identify barriers and work closely with ITT providers to explore, design and test new interventions to recruit more candidates from under-represented backgrounds into the sector.</p><p>Alongside a focus on recruitment, it is important we retain male teachers. This will be supported by our work to ensure that all new entrants to teacher training have the best possible start to the early stage of their career, regardless of gender.</p><p>World-class programmes developed by the Department for Education to support the school workforce, including our Early Career Framework (ECF) reforms for those at the beginning of careers and National Professional Qualifications (NPQs) to develop our best teaching and leadership talent, is the best training for everyone whatever their background. The ECF reforms provide a funded entitlement for all early career teachers in England to access high quality professional development at the start of their careers. NPQs are now freely available to all teachers in state-funded schools, as well as state-funded 16-19 organisations.</p> answering member constituency Worcester answering member printed Mr Robin Walker question first answered 17/11/2021 13:42:36 answering member 4091 label Biography information for Mr Robin Walker
	tabling member	3960 label Biography information for Henry Smith

1365659

	registered interest
	date	02/11/2021
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Education: Finance
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of the £1.8 billion in education recovery funding, announced at the Spending Review on 27 October 2021, will be used to fund catch-up health and care services for (a) disabled and (b) other young people.
	tabling member constituency	Crawley
	tabling member printed	Henry Smith
	uin	68208
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/11/2021 answer text <p>Health services are accessed through the NHS and not funded by the Department for Education. Local authorities are responsible for providing respite care and short breaks for disabled children, these services are funded through the main local government settlement.</p><p>Helping children and young people to catch up on education missed due to the COVID-19 outbreak remains a top priority of this government. Our £1.8 billion investment announced as part of the Spending Review is targeted at those who most need help catching up. It includes over £800 million to provide a universal uplift with an additional 40 hours of education for students aged 16-19 who have the least time left to recover; and an additional £1 billion of catch up funding directly to schools so they can best decide how to support education recovery for the pupils that need it, focused on evidence-based approaches.</p><p>The department has consistently prioritised children with SEND in our recovery programmes, for example by providing additional uplifts for those who attend specialist education providers (including SEND units in mainstream schools) in both the catch-up premium in the 2020/21 academic year and the recovery premium for the 2021/22 academic year, and providing additional funding to special and alternative provision schools to provide one to one tutoring for their pupils, with greater flexibility to schools to make it easier for them to take on local tutors or use existing staff to supplement those employed through the existing National Tutoring Programme. The 16-19 tuition fund continues to support students with SEND as at present through small group tuition.</p><p>The department is 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. It will strengthen participation of parents and young people in the SEND system, ensuring they have a voice in designing policies and services and have access to high quality information and support.</p><p>Alongside recovery funding, the department is investing £2.6 billion between the financial years 2022 and 2025 to deliver new places and improve existing provision for pupils with SEND or who require alternative provision. This funding represents a significant, transformational investment in new high needs provision and will help deliver tens of thousands of new places.</p><p>More widely, the department has continued to provide local authorities with their full high needs revenue funding allocations throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, including more than £1.5 billion of high needs funding over financial years 2020-21 and 2021-22, bringing the total high needs funding allocated this year to more than £8 billion. The department announced in summer 2021 that high needs funding will increase by a further £780 million, or 9.6%, in the next financial year, compared to this year. Through the Spending Review the department secured for schools and children and young people with high needs an increase of £4.7 billion by financial year 2024-25, compared to our original 2022-23 plans. This includes £1.6 billion in additional funding for 2022-23 budgets, on top of the year-on-year increase of £2.4 billion already confirmed at the 2019 Spending Review, and which is intended to help the sector respond to the pressures the department knows they are seeing: in overall costs, in national insurance, on high needs, in managing COVID-19 and in supporting children and young people to recover from the COVID-19 outbreak. The department will confirm in due course how this funding will be allocated in 2022-23 for schools and high needs.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 09/11/2021 16:30:59 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	3960 label Biography information for Henry Smith