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1010694

	registered interest
	date	20/11/2018
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Adoption
	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 increase the number of children being adopted.
	tabling member constituency	Strangford
	tabling member printed	Jim Shannon
	uin	193574
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/11/2018 answer text <p>Decisions on adoption in England are made by local authorities based on children’s individual needs.</p><p>In 2016 the government published ‘Adoption – A vision for change’ which set out how we intend to radically redesign the whole adoption system in England – the structures, systems and workforce – to ensure we have the foundations in place to build lasting change.</p><p>We have enabled more children to be placed in stable homes earlier by requiring local authorities to consider a fostering for adoption placement wherever possible. We funded a significant growth in the use of innovative adopter-led matching through National Exchange Days and Adoption Activity Days. We have also introduced a new, quicker two-stage process for approving adopters.</p><p>The result has been that the average time taken from entering care to a child being placed with their adopted family has decreased since 2012-13 by 7 months to 14 months in 2017-18. The children waiting in care with a placement order but not yet placed with adopters has dropped from 5,300 reported at 31 March 2013 to 2,760 at the end of 2017-18.[1]</p><p>We are driving further improvements in local adoption recruitment, matching and support through the introduction of Regional Adoption Agencies.</p><p> </p><p>[1] <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2017-to-2018" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2017-to-2018</a>.</p> answering member constituency Stratford-on-Avon answering member printed Nadhim Zahawi question first answered 28/11/2018 15:40:20 answering member 4113 label Biography information for Nadhim Zahawi
	tabling member	4131 label Biography information for Jim Shannon

1045627

	registered interest
	date	21/01/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Dyslexia
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people have been diagnosed with dyslexia in each of the last five years.
	tabling member constituency	Strangford
	tabling member printed	Jim Shannon
	uin	210612
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/01/2019 answer text <p>The information requested is not held centrally.</p><p>We publish the number and proportion of pupils with special educational needs, including the type of need in the annual ‘Special educational needs in England’ statistical release, available at <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-special-educational-needs-sen" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-special-educational-needs-sen</a>.</p><p>In the 2018 release ‘Special educational needs in England: 2018’, available at <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england-january-2018" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england-january-2018</a>, table 8 covers types of need. Pupils with special educational needs are recorded according to their primary type of need. The current types of need do not include a specific breakdown for dyslexia alone. These cases are expected to be recorded under ‘Specific Learning Difficulty’. No estimates of the number of children with dyslexia within this category have been made.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Stratford-on-Avon answering member printed Nadhim Zahawi question first answered 25/01/2019 13:47:57 answering member 4113 label Biography information for Nadhim Zahawi
	tabling member	4131 label Biography information for Jim Shannon

1054023

	registered interest
	date	04/02/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Teachers: Standards
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	What steps his Department has taken to strengthen the teaching profession.
	tabling member constituency	Strangford
	tabling member printed	Jim Shannon
	uin	908972
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/02/2019 answer text <p>On 28 January 2019 we launched the Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy.</p><p>Designed collaboratively with the education sector, the centrepiece of the strategy is the Early Career Framework, which will underpin a fully-funded, two-year package of structured support for all teachers in the first two years of their career.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 04/02/2019 16:58:47 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
	tabling member	4131 label Biography information for Jim Shannon

1063843

	registered interest
	date	19/02/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Schools: Crimes of Violence
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to reduce the level of attacks on teachers by pupils in schools.
	tabling member constituency	Strangford
	tabling member printed	Jim Shannon
	uin	222848
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/02/2019 answer text <p>All schools should be safe and disciplined environments within which pupils feel happy and able to fulfil their potential. This Government is committed to ensuring that all teachers are equipped with the skills to tackle both the serious behavioural issues that compromise the safety and wellbeing of pupils and school staff, as well as the low level disruption that too often gets in the way of teaching.</p><p>Any form of violence in school is completely unacceptable and should not be tolerated. The workplace should not be a setting where people, including teachers and pupils, are subject to threats of, or actual violence, harassment or bullying. The Health and Safety Executive has provided advice for schools to use to put in place strategies to prevent or minimise workplace harassment and violence. Schools’ behaviour policies should set out how poor behaviour, including incidents of violence, are dealt with.</p><p>If there is a violent attack on a teacher or any person on school premises, the Department expects schools to take immediate and robust action. This should include ongoing support for the person concerned and a review of the incident to establish what lessons can be learned. Any decision on how to sanction a pupil is a matter for the school. Where the incident constitutes a criminal offence, the school should report it to the police.</p><p>To further support schools, the Department provides head teachers, teachers and governing boards with a range of information to help them develop policies to manage disruptive and poor behaviour within the classroom in order to help reduce the likelihood of violent attacks on teachers and pupils.</p><p>The Department has also given teachers a range of powers to promote good behaviour. The Department’s advice on behaviour has also been updated to outline a range of sanctions that it is permissible for teachers to use.</p><p>The Department is investing £10 million to create behaviour hubs in England to facilitate the sharing of best practice in classroom and behaviour management.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 27/02/2019 16:25:54 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
	tabling member	4131 label Biography information for Jim Shannon

1064673

	registered interest
	date	21/02/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Children: Disadvantaged
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department provides funding to programmes that aim to support children from broken families.
	tabling member constituency	Strangford
	tabling member printed	Jim Shannon
	uin	224331
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/03/2019 answer text <p>At Autumn Budget, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced an extra £410 million to address pressures on social care services, along with £84 million over 5 years to support up to 20 local authorities to improve their social work practice and decision-making, enabling them to work more effectively with the most vulnerable children and their families.</p><p>This builds on the £200 billion government has already made available to councils up to 2020 to provide services in the best interests of local residents, including those for children and young people.</p><p>The government will continue to work closely with the sector to consider long-term children’s services funding as part of the Spending Review.</p> answering member constituency Stratford-on-Avon answering member printed Nadhim Zahawi question first answered 01/03/2019 12:05:14 answering member 4113 label Biography information for Nadhim Zahawi
	tabling member	4131 label Biography information for Jim Shannon

1083516

	registered interest
	date	07/03/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Holocaust: Education
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps he has taken to ensure that pupils are (a) taught the history of and (b) well informed about the holocaust.
	tabling member constituency	Strangford
	tabling member printed	Jim Shannon
	uin	229716
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/03/2019 answer text <p>Teaching the history of the Holocaust is a compulsory part of the history curriculum at Key Stage 3 in maintained schools in England.</p><p> </p><p>The Department provides funding to University College London’s Institute of Education’s Centre for Holocaust Education to train teachers on how best to teach pupils about the Holocaust. In addition, it funds the Holocaust Educational Trust to run the Lessons from Auschwitz project which provides educational visits for teachers and sixth form students to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau.</p><p> </p><p>In October 2018, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced funding of £1.7 million for a new programme to commemorate the 75<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen.</p><p> </p><p>Education is a devolved matter, and approaches to Holocaust education may differ in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 15/03/2019 09:02:42 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
	tabling member	4131 label Biography information for Jim Shannon

1104704

	registered interest
	date	25/03/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	STEM Subjects: Skilled Workers
	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 skills gap in STEM subjects.
	tabling member constituency	Strangford
	tabling member printed	Jim Shannon
	uin	236376
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/04/2019 answer text <p>To address the shortage of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills, the Department is encouraging more students into STEM education and training, at all stages from primary school to higher education. As part of the Industrial Strategy, the Government has committed substantial spending on mathematics, digital and technical education to increase the take-up and better teaching of STEM subjects in schools. For example, the Department is funding a new £84 million programme to improve computing teaching and participation, and the Advanced Maths Premium which aims to support schools and colleges in tackling some of the financial barriers to increase participation in post-16 maths.</p><p> </p><p>The Department is committed to tackling the gender imbalance in STEM subjects, and has invested in programmes to address female participation, particularly in subjects like computing and physics. This includes the Stimulating Physics Network which has a specific strand focusing on increasing the number of girls’ in physics A level. A Gender Balance in Computing pilot programme will also be launched this year to identify practical interventions that schools (at all stages, excluding post-16) can implement to improve girls’ participation in computing.</p><p> </p><p>The Department is improving careers advice in schools so that young people are aware of the high quality options available for both technical and academic routes into STEM and that they have access to information about the variety of careers that STEM pathways have to offer. STEM activities, including employer talks and work visits, are built into school career programmes and the Careers &amp; Enterprise Company funds opportunities for young people to meet a wide range of STEM employers.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 02/04/2019 16:54:44 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
	tabling member	4131 label Biography information for Jim Shannon

1121339

	registered interest
	date	11/04/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Apprentices: Age
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether apprenticeships are age restricted; and whether they are designed to entice any particular demographic.
	tabling member constituency	Strangford
	tabling member printed	Jim Shannon
	uin	244092
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/04/2019 answer text <p>The Department for Education is responsible for the apprenticeship programme in England.</p><p>Individuals in England can apply for an apprenticeship whilst they are still at school but must be 16 or over by the end of the summer holidays to start an apprenticeship. There is no upper age limit. Apprenticeships offer people of all ages and backgrounds the opportunity to earn whilst they learn.</p><p>We are encouraging participation from under-represented groups, including people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, people with a learning disability or learning difficulty, and those from disadvantaged backgrounds, so that everyone can benefit from the increased wage returns and employment prospects that apprenticeships offer. We are also working to improve gender representation in sectors where it is needed, such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Guildford answering member printed Anne Milton question first answered 24/04/2019 09:48:02 answering member 1523 label Biography information for Anne Milton
	tabling member	4131 label Biography information for Jim Shannon

1123160

	registered interest
	date	25/04/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Females: New Businesses
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education what steps she has taken to promote entrepreneurship among female pupils in school.
	tabling member constituency	Strangford
	tabling member printed	Jim Shannon
	uin	247710
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/05/2019 answer text <p>The government’s careers strategy for England, published in December 2017, aims to give young people from all backgrounds the opportunity to learn from employers about work and entrepreneurship. The careers strategy is clear that positive steps are being taken to eradicate gender norms in the classroom that could otherwise lead to girls narrowing their career choices.</p><p>While it is for schools to decide how best to provide entrepreneurship education, the careers statutory guidance encourages schools in England to provide opportunities for all pupils, regardless of gender, to develop entrepreneurial skills.</p><p>The Careers &amp; Enterprise Company’s network of Enterprise Advisers, comprising of senior volunteers from business, helps schools and colleges to work with local businesses. This gives young people exposure to individuals, including positive female role models, who can provide insight into a wide range of jobs and careers. Over 2,000 business volunteers have been recruited and over 40% are self-employed or from small businesses and microbusinesses. Through the careers strategy, all schools and colleges will be offered an Enterprise Adviser by 2020.</p> answering member constituency Guildford answering member printed Anne Milton question first answered 02/05/2019 12:45:16 answering member 1523 label Biography information for Anne Milton
	tabling member	4131 label Biography information for Jim Shannon

1129294

	registered interest
	date	03/06/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	STEM Subjects: Higher Education
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to help ensure diversity in students studying STEM subjects at university.
	tabling member constituency	Strangford
	tabling member printed	Jim Shannon
	uin	259218
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/06/2019 answer text <p>Widening access and participation in higher education (HE) is a priority for this government. This means that everyone with the capability to succeed in HE should have the opportunity, regardless of their background, ethnicity, gender, or where they grew up.</p><p> </p><p>The Office for Students (as the regulator for higher education in England) has a duty to promote equality of opportunity in relation to access and participation in HE and we expect to see further progress, particularly amongst the most selective institutions.</p><p> </p><p>Overall numbers of students studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are rising. The share of students studying science subjects at English HE providers has increased from 41% in 2010/11 to 45% in 2016/17.</p><p> </p><p>Despite rising STEM student numbers, we are far from complacent. The Department for Education is committed to tackling the gender imbalance in STEM subjects, and has invested in programmes to address female participation, particularly in subjects like computing and physics. This includes the Stimulating Physics Network which has a specific strand focusing on increasing the number of girls studying physics A level. A Gender Balance in Computing Pilot Programme will be launched this year to identify practical interventions that schools can implement to improve girls’ participation in computing.</p><p> </p><p>They are also funding a new £84 million programme to improve computing teaching and participation, and the Advanced Maths Premium which aims to support schools and colleges in tackling some of the financial barriers to increase participation in post-16 maths.</p><p> </p><p>The department is improving careers advice in schools so that young people are aware of the high quality options available for both technical and academic routes into STEM and that they have access to information about the variety of careers that STEM pathways have to offer. STEM activities, including employer talks and work visits, are built into school career programmes and the Careers &amp; Enterprise Company funds opportunities for young people to meet a wide range of STEM employers.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Kingswood answering member printed Chris Skidmore question first answered 11/06/2019 15:43:16 answering member 4021 label Biography information for Chris Skidmore
	tabling member	4131 label Biography information for Jim Shannon