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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

1007016

	registered interest
	date	14/11/2018
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Managers: Apprentices
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions his Department has had with the business community on the Institute for Apprenticeships' proposed changes in funding bands for management apprenticeships.
	tabling member constituency	Crawley
	tabling member printed	Henry Smith
	uin	191383
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/11/2018 answer text <p>As the Institute for Apprenticeships (IfA) are an independent body, it is for them, rather than for the department, to lead on the process for reviewing funding bands for existing standards and on consultation with the business community.</p><p>The IfA has worked with employer trailblazer groups throughout the review process. The IfA has also discussed the management standards directly with business stakeholders who have made representations.</p><p>The remaining outcomes of the review of funding bands will be published on GOV.UK by the end of the calendar year.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Guildford answering member printed Anne Milton grouped question UIN 191384 191385 question first answered 22/11/2018 15:47:57 answering member 1523 label Biography information for Anne Milton
	tabling member	3960 label Biography information for Henry Smith

1007018

	registered interest
	date	14/11/2018
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Apprentices
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions his Department has had with the Institute for Apprenticeships on the concerns made by the business community on the consultation process into the review of the apprenticeship funding bands.
	tabling member constituency	Crawley
	tabling member printed	Henry Smith
	uin	191384
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/11/2018 answer text <p>As the Institute for Apprenticeships (IfA) are an independent body, it is for them, rather than for the department, to lead on the process for reviewing funding bands for existing standards and on consultation with the business community.</p><p>The IfA has worked with employer trailblazer groups throughout the review process. The IfA has also discussed the management standards directly with business stakeholders who have made representations.</p><p>The remaining outcomes of the review of funding bands will be published on GOV.UK by the end of the calendar year.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Guildford answering member printed Anne Milton grouped question UIN 191383 191385 question first answered 22/11/2018 15:47:57 answering member 1523 label Biography information for Anne Milton
	tabling member	3960 label Biography information for Henry Smith

1007021

	registered interest
	date	14/11/2018
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Apprentices
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the timescale is for the decision on the remaining apprenticeship funding band changes proposed by the Institute for Apprenticeships.
	tabling member constituency	Crawley
	tabling member printed	Henry Smith
	uin	191385
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/11/2018 answer text <p>As the Institute for Apprenticeships (IfA) are an independent body, it is for them, rather than for the department, to lead on the process for reviewing funding bands for existing standards and on consultation with the business community.</p><p>The IfA has worked with employer trailblazer groups throughout the review process. The IfA has also discussed the management standards directly with business stakeholders who have made representations.</p><p>The remaining outcomes of the review of funding bands will be published on GOV.UK by the end of the calendar year.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Guildford answering member printed Anne Milton grouped question UIN 191383 191384 question first answered 22/11/2018 15:47:57 answering member 1523 label Biography information for Anne Milton
	tabling member	3960 label Biography information for Henry Smith

1675737

	registered interest
	date	05/12/2023
	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 screen pupils for special educational needs and disabilities in primary schools.
	tabling member constituency	Crawley
	tabling member printed	Henry Smith
	uin	900565
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/12/2023 answer text <p>Early identification of needs is critical to improving outcomes for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and the department understands that early intervention can reduce the impact that a Special Educational Need (SEN) or disability may have in the long term.</p><p>The SEND Code of Practice is clear that meeting the needs of a child with SEN does not require a diagnostic label or test. Instead, the department expects teachers to monitor the progress of all children and young people and provide support where it is needed, including arranging diagnostic tests where appropriate.</p><p>To support all teachers in meeting these expectations, the department is implementing teacher training reforms. These reforms are designed to ensure that teachers have the skills to support all pupils to succeed, including those with SEND. Since 2020, the Initial Teacher Training Core Content Framework (CCF) has included content on adapting teaching to the strengths and needs of all pupils. The department is conducting a review of the CCF and Early Career Framework, which will consider further opportunities to improve how the frameworks support new teachers to meet the needs of pupils with SEND.</p><p>The department’s Universal Services (US) contract brings together SEND-specific continuous professional development and support for the teaching workforce to improve outcomes for children and young people. This includes autism awareness training and resources. Over 100,000 professionals have undertaken autism awareness training since the US programme launched.</p><p>The department has also committed to funding training for up to 7,000 early years staff to gain an accredited Level 3 early years SENCO qualification.</p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston question first answered 11/12/2023 17:35:03 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
	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

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

1046054

	registered interest
	date	22/01/2019
	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 recent comparative assessment he has made of the level of funding for education in (a) England and (b) EU member states.
	tabling member constituency	Crawley
	tabling member printed	Henry Smith
	uin	211265
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/01/2019 answer text <p>The Department uses internationally comparable data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to assess how our funding compares internationally.</p><p> </p><p>This data shows that the UK is among the higher spenders on education at primary and secondary level. The UK government spends 3.8% of GDP on primary and secondary educational institutions, compared to an EU22 average of 3.0%. Within the EU, only Belgium (4.1%) and Finland (4.0%) spend a higher proportion of GDP on primary and secondary educational institutions than the UK. The OECD data also shows that the UK is the top spender in the G7 on schools and colleges delivering primary and secondary education, as a percentage of GDP.</p><p> </p><p>Total expenditure on primary and secondary educational institutions as a percentage of GDP, from government sources (2015) in EU countries in the OECD analysis can be found in the table below:</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Country</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Expenditure as a percentage of GDP</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Austria</p></td><td><p>3.0</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Belgium</p></td><td><p>4.1</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Czech Republic</p></td><td><p>2.4</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Denmark</p></td><td><p>Missing</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Estonia</p></td><td><p>2.7</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Finland</p></td><td><p>4.0</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>France</p></td><td><p>3.4</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Germany</p></td><td><p>2.6</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Greece</p></td><td><p>2.7</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Hungary</p></td><td><p>2.7</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Ireland</p></td><td><p>2.5</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Italy</p></td><td><p>2.8</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Latvia</p></td><td><p>3.3</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Luxembourg</p></td><td><p>2.8</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Netherlands</p></td><td><p>3.2</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Poland</p></td><td><p>2.9</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Portugal</p></td><td><p>3.4</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Slovak Republic</p></td><td><p>2.6</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Slovenia</p></td><td><p>3.0</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Spain</p></td><td><p>2.7</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Sweden</p></td><td><p>3.6</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>United Kingdom</p></td><td><p>3.8</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>EU22 average</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>3.0</strong></p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>The data on expenditure on educational institutions as a percentage of GDP by source of funds is available in Table C2.2 of the OECD’s Education at a Glance 2018 publication at the following link: <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2018/total-expenditure-on-educational-institutions-as-a-percentage-of-gdp-by-source-of-funds-2015_eag-2018-table140-en" target="_blank">https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2018/total-expenditure-on-educational-institutions-as-a-percentage-of-gdp-by-source-of-funds-2015_eag-2018-table140-en</a>.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 30/01/2019 13:42:26 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

1145398

	registered interest
	date	09/09/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Schools: Crawley
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	What assessment he has made of the adequacy of the level of funding allocated to schools in Crawley constituency.
	tabling member constituency	Crawley
	tabling member printed	Henry Smith
	uin	912328
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/09/2019 answer text <p>For 2019-20 schools in Crawley attracted 5.6% more funding per pupil compared to 2017-18. This is an additional £235 per pupil. The additional funding announced last week means further increases for every school in Crawley over the next three years. School-level details will be announced in due course.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 09/09/2019 16:42:24 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
	tabling member	3960 label Biography information for Henry Smith