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1712761

	registered interest
	date	22/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Childcare
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the number of parents (a) with two year olds who are eligible for 15 hours of childcare support and (b) who have had codes validated by providers and are receiving their entitlement in each local authority area.
	tabling member constituency	Houghton and Sunderland South
	tabling member printed	Bridget Phillipson
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	uin	22934
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/04/2024 answer text <p>This government’s plan to support hard working families is working. The department are making the largest ever investment in childcare in England’s history. By September 2025, when the new entitlements are fully rolled out, working families will on average save £6,900 per year if they use the full 30 hours free childcare from when their child is 9 months old until they start school.</p><p> </p><p>Our roll-out has already been successful, with the government exceeding its target for the April roll out of the first 15 hours for two year olds.</p><p> </p><p>The department’s estimates focus on numbers of children, rather than parents. The department estimates that there are around 285,000 two year olds eligible for 15 hours of childcare support.</p><p> </p><p>As per my statement on 23 April, more than 200,000 are already benefitting from the first stage of the expansion. The department will be publishing data by local authorities in due course.</p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston question first answered 25/04/2024 17:06:03 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
	tabling member	4046 label Biography information for Bridget Phillipson

1701732

	registered interest
	date	17/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Childcare: Subsidies
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of Government subsidies for childcare on the cost of childcare for people who are not eligible for subsidies.
	tabling member constituency	North East Hampshire
	tabling member printed	Mr Ranil Jayawardena
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	uin	22345
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/04/2024 answer text <p>For families with younger children, childcare costs are often a significant part of their household expenditure, which is why improving the cost, choice and availability of childcare for working parents is important to the government.</p><p> </p><p>From April 2024, working parents of 2 year olds will be able to access 15 hours of free childcare per week for 38 weeks of the year. This transformative roll out will benefit the parents of up to 246,000 children who have been issued 2 year old funding codes, of which 195,000 have been validated to date.</p><p> </p><p>From September 2024, this will be extended to working parents of children from nine months to 2 year olds. From September 2025, all working parents of children aged nine months up to 3 years will be able to access 30 hours of free childcare per week. The expansion of this entitlement will save eligible parents up to £6,900 per year per child helping even more working parents with the cost of childcare and making a real difference to the lives of those families.</p><p> </p><p>The income eligibility criteria are applied on a per parent basis. To be eligible, parents will need to earn the equivalent of 16 hours a week at National Minimum or Living Wage, which is £183 per week or £9,518 per year in 2024-2025, and less than £100,000 adjusted net income.</p><p> </p><p>For families with two parents, both must be working to meet the criteria, unless one is receiving certain benefits. In a single-parent household, the single parent must meet the threshold. The £100,000 level was chosen to correspond with income tax thresholds and to be easily understandable for parents. Only a very small proportion of parents, 3.1% in 2023, earn over the £100,000 adjusted net income maximum threshold.</p><p> </p><p>The eligibility criteria apply to the existing entitlements and were debated in, and agreed by, Parliament. The maximum income limit applies to both Tax-Free Childcare and 30 hours free childcare, which allows parents to apply for both schemes through the same online application (Childcare Service).</p><p> </p><p>However, the universal 15 hours of free childcare offer remains in place for all parents of 3 and 4 year olds, regardless of parental circumstances, including those who earn over £100,000.</p><p> </p><p>Working families can also access support with the childcare costs through Tax Free Childcare worth up to £2,000 per year for children aged up to 11, or £4,000 per year for children aged up to 17 with disabilities. For every £8 paid into a Tax-Free Childcare account, the government tops it up with another £2.</p><p> </p><p>There is a comprehensive evaluation programme underpinning the expansion of childcare entitlements. This includes a process evaluation which will explore how families not eligible for the new entitlements experience finding and accessing childcare, including the associated costs. Further, the impact evaluation will assess how the expansion has impacted upon the quality of childcare provision and children’s development, for all children, and wider family outcomes. As per Government Social Research guidelines, evaluation findings will be available within 12 weeks of the projects being finalised. The department expects the first to be available from spring 2026.</p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston question first answered 25/04/2024 12:43:06 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
	tabling member	4498 label Biography information for Mr Ranil Jayawardena

1699988

	registered interest
	date	12/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Children in Care and Foster Care
	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 13 March 2024 to Questions 15600 and 15601 on Children in Care and Foster Care, if she will publish the number of children looked after who were cared for in a (a) relative and (b) friend foster placement by (i) age, (ii) gender, (iii) ethnicity and (iv) local authority level as of 31 March 2023.
	tabling member constituency	Denton and Reddish
	tabling member printed	Andrew Gwynne
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	uin	20934
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/04/2024 answer text <p>The latest figures on children looked after who were cared for in a relative or friend foster placement by age, gender and ethnicity and at local authority level are shown in the attached tables. The department does not hold the data broken down separately into relative foster placements and friend foster placements. Therefore, the combined totals have been provided. Data has been provided for children looked after on 31 March 2023.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston question first answered 22/04/2024 16:59:28 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston attachment 1 file name 20934 Table Attachment.xlsx title 20934_Table_attachment
	tabling member	1506 label Biography information for Andrew Gwynne

1701933

	registered interest
	date	17/04/2024
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	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 SEND and alternative provision improvement plan published in March 2023, what steps she is taking to ensure families have confidence in the mediation process set out in that plan.
	tabling member constituency	Sheffield, Hallam
	tabling member printed	Olivia Blake
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	uin	22429
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/04/2024 answer text <p>The reforms set out in the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and alternative provision Improvement Plan are geared towards making families’ overall experience of the SEND system more positive through more collaborative, consistent and transparent decision-making, thereby increasing parental confidence and leading to a less adversarial system.</p><p> </p><p>The department wants to rebalance the SEND system through earlier identification of need and through support provided, where possible, in mainstream settings. The department is currently testing a range of measures through the Change Programme. The department believes the Change Programme will make the biggest improvements to the quality of Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans, and the experience of getting them. These measures include multi-agency panels to improve the quality of decision making and parental confidence in the EHC needs assessment process, a single national EHC plan template and guidance, advisory tailored lists and measures to resolve disagreements more quickly through the use of strengthened mediation procedures.</p><p> </p><p>Strengthening mediation is key part of the departments proposals. This is because where effective mediation takes place, disputes can be resolved earlier, without the need to appeal to the Tribunal. The department is working closely with the Council for disabled children to develop bespoke mediation guidance for families so that they understand the process, their rights and the benefits of mediation.</p><p> </p><p>Recognising the importance of families receiving high-quality mediation, the department is working with the Civil Mediation Council and the College of Mediators to review and build on their existing professional standards for SEND mediators, first published in 2018, which apply to their joint register of accredited mediators. The department has engaged parents/carers, children and young people in the drafting and testing of the guidance and standards.</p><p> </p><p>The department are also developing and testing a good practice delivery model for SEND mediation to help improve the quality and consistency of mediation provision, as well as gathering more data on the impact and outcomes of mediation.</p><p> </p><p>All of these things taken together should help improve family confidence in the overall SEND system, as well as in the mediation process.</p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston question first answered 22/04/2024 12:30:36 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
	tabling member	4864 label Biography information for Olivia Blake

1698923

	registered interest
	date	26/03/2024
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Students: Freedom of Expression
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, in reference to the Office for Students consultation on proposed regulatory advice and other matters relating to freedom of speech, announced on 26 March 2024, what discussions (a) she and (b) the Office for Students have had on this with (i) the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, (ii) other Ministers in the Department for Business and Trade, (iii) Officials in that Department, (iv) the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Affairs, (v) other Ministers in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and (vi) officials in that Department.
	tabling member constituency	Houghton and Sunderland South
	tabling member printed	Bridget Phillipson
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	uin	20614
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/04/2024 answer text <p>Officials regularly speak on matters of mutual importance across government, particularly on cross-cutting policy and new legislation. The department’s officials continue to engage with both the Office for Students (OfS) and other governmental departments (OGDs) surrounding the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 (the Act).</p><p>Officials will continue to engage with the OfS and OGDs ahead of the Act coming into force, currently planned for 1 August 2024 for the main provisions, including the complaints scheme. The content of the consultation published on 26 March 2026 is a matter for the OfS.</p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston question first answered 15/04/2024 16:59:20 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
	tabling member	4046 label Biography information for Bridget Phillipson

1693294

	registered interest
	date	04/03/2024
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Parents
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of parenting programmes on (a) levels of expenditure associated with (i) child and adult mental health and (ii) youth anti-social behaviour and (b) the proportion of parents able to return to the workplace as a result of a reduction in school refusal rates.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	uin	16740
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/03/2024 answer text <p>The department is clear that parents should do everything they can to ensure that their child is in school every day. Regular school attendance is vital for children’s attainment, mental wellbeing and long-term development. It is crucial that the department has a system of support in place to ensure every child attends school every day, ready to learn and thrive.</p><p>The government’s ‘Working Together to Improve School Attendance’ guidance, which will become statutory ahead of the next school year, includes a core set of functions that local authority attendance support staff, whether titled education welfare officers, attendance officers or early help practitioners, are expected to provide free of charge to all schools and funded centrally through the Central Schools Service Block and Supporting Families Grant. Some early adopters have reported benefits from integrating attendance into other services, and providing better, more joined up whole family support, that has the potential to reduce demand for higher cost crisis services over time.</p><p>The department’s attendance mentors pilot sees mentors supporting a group of persistently absent pupils and their families, on a one-to-one basis, to help identify and address their barriers to education. The department has had positive feedback from parents, pupils and schools who have engaged with the attendance mentors programme and have started to see some promising impact data. The department has recently announced an additional investment of £15 million to expand mentoring into ten new areas over the next three years.</p><p>The government’s Supporting Families programme continues to work with families where attendance issues are a significant concern. ‘Getting a good education’ is a headline indicator in the national Supporting Families Outcomes Framework, which requires sustained good attendance for all children in the family, across two consecutive school terms. It is important that those identifying attendance issues begin to explore and identify any issues which may be behind the attendance problems, including any needs and circumstances in the wider family as part of Early Help Assessment processes.</p><p>The department’s reforms are starting to make a difference. There were 440,000 fewer pupils persistently absent or not attending in 2022/23 than in the year before. Overall absence during the 2023/24 autumn term was 6.8%, down from 7.5% in the 2022/23 autumn term.</p><p>Alongside this, the department is currently considering options for widening access to parenting support through family hubs and is undertaking assessments of the effectiveness and value for money of evidence-based parenting programmes, as well as other forms of support for parents. As part of this work to inform future fiscal events, the department will consider the downstream economic impacts of parenting programmes.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston question first answered 28/03/2024 17:31:21 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

1697447

	registered interest
	date	20/03/2024
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Department for Education: Written Questions
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to respond to Question 17725 on Academic Freedom tabled by the hon. Member for Sheffield Central on 8 March 2024.
	tabling member constituency	Sheffield Central
	tabling member printed	Paul Blomfield
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	uin	19605
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/03/2024 answer text <p>A response was published to the hon. Member for Sheffield Central to Question <a href="https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2024-03-08/17725" target="_blank">17725</a> on 21<sup>st</sup> March 2024.</p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston question first answered 27/03/2024 17:25:03 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
	tabling member	4058 label Biography information for Paul Blomfield

1696771

	registered interest
	date	18/03/2024
	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, whether she has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of providing a formal apology to unmarried women and their children who were forcibly separated between 1949 and 1976.
	tabling member constituency	Bristol North West
	tabling member printed	Darren Jones
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	uin	19134
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/03/2024 answer text <p>The government agreed that the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) raised some important issues regarding historical adoption practices. Whilst a formal apology has not been issued, as the government did not actively support these practices, the government has publicly said sorry on behalf of society to all those affected by these practices during this period.</p><p>As the government response said at the time, successive governments have made significant changes to adoption legislation and practice to ensure that the practices reported are never repeated.</p><p>Furthermore, following the JCHR report, the department has already amended regulations to make it easier for adults to access adoption support. In addition, the department has written to local authorities, encouraging them to retain historical adoption records for 100 years instead of 75, to make access to records easier, and asking them to support access without undue delay to such records.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston question first answered 27/03/2024 17:19:32 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
	tabling member	4621 label Biography information for Darren Jones

1697211

	registered interest
	date	19/03/2024
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Schools: Offensive Weapons
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many weapons were seized in schools in England in (a) 2018 and (b) 2023.
	tabling member constituency	Enfield North
	tabling member printed	Feryal Clark
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	uin	19493
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/03/2024 answer text <p>The department does not hold data on how many weapons have been seized in schools.</p><p>The statutory ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ (KCSIE) guidance advises schools on creating safe environments. KCSIE is clear that all staff should have an awareness of safeguarding issues that can put children at risk of harm. The ‘Searching, Screening and Confiscation’ Guidance was updated in 2022 to emphasise the importance of the school duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of all pupils and staff. Headteachers, and the staff they authorise, have a statutory power to search a pupil or their possessions, where they have reasonable grounds to suspect that the pupil may have a prohibited item, such as knives or weapons, and confiscate such items.</p><p>The department works across government, and with other partners, on initiatives to prevent serious violence, including knife crime. Over £50 million has been made available to fund specialist support in mainstream and alternative provision schools in the areas where serious violence most affects children and communities. This includes SAFE (‘Support, Attend, Fulfil, Exceed’) taskforces that have been established in ten areas, reaching over 2,100 children as of September 2023. Taskforces are school-led partnerships investing in evidence-based interventions in and around school, such as mentoring and social skills training, that reach children early on, to re-engage them in their education and reduce their involvement in serious violence. To benefit areas outside of the programme, the department has published a supportive guide on school-based interventions, which is available at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/safe-taskforces" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/safe-taskforces</a>.</p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston grouped question UIN 19494 19495 19496 19497 19498 question first answered 27/03/2024 14:49:05 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
	tabling member	4822 label Biography information for Feryal Clark

1696480

	registered interest
	date	15/03/2024
	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 she is taking to ensure that local authorities are more involved in the delivery of (a) education and (b) health services for children with SEND.
	tabling member constituency	York Central
	tabling member printed	Rachael Maskell
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	uin	18904
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/03/2024 answer text <p>Local authorities already have existing statutory responsibilities to develop, publish and review the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) local offer, to ensure that the range of provision and services available in their local area are sufficient and well suited to the needs of children with SEND.</p><p>In the SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan, the department have committed to establishing new local SEND and AP partnerships, convened by the local authority, that will bring together local partners to strategically plan and commission support for children and young people with SEND and AP. SEND and AP partnerships are a collaborative network of individuals, including health commissioners and education providers, who are working together to strategically plan SEND services. They will be underpinned by strengthened accountabilities and improved use of data for all those responsible for local delivery.</p><p>Moreover, the department has established a steering group to oversee a joint Department for Education and Department of Health and Social Care approach to SEND workforce planning. This feeds into the National SEND and AP Implementation Board and aims to be complete by 2025. The work will build on the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan published in June 2023, which sets out the steps the NHS and its partners need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years.</p><p>The Improvement Plan also committed to the Change Programme which was launched in September 2023, and is testing key SEND and AP reforms with 32 local authorities in each of the 9 regions. The department, working with its Delivery Partner, Reaching Excellence and Ambition for all Children (REACh), are providing these local authorities with ‘boots on the ground’ support for the testing of these reforms. We are also running a live feedback loop that is providing early insights into how the reforms and supporting documents are working and identifying required changes.</p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed David Johnston grouped question UIN 18903 question first answered 25/03/2024 14:00:58 answering member 4761 label Biography information for David Johnston
	tabling member	4471 label Biography information for Rachael Maskell