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1506522

registered interest
date	20/09/2022
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Social Workers: Agency Workers
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will take steps to reduce the number of agency social workers working in the care system.
tabling member constituency	York Central
tabling member printed	Rachael Maskell
uin	51794
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/09/2022 answer text <p>The department invests over £50 million each year on recruiting and developing child and family social workers to ensure the workforce continues to have the capacity, skills, and knowledge to support and protect vulnerable children.</p><p>However, as the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care set out, social worker recruitment, retention, and quality across the country are not consistently at the levels they need to be.</p><p>The department is currently considering the review’s recommendations which includes ideas such as regional staff banks, national pay scales, and memoranda of understanding to help reduce the cost and use of agency social work.</p><p>The department will publish the children’s social care implementation strategy in due course.</p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Rochester and Strood answering member printed Kelly Tolhurst question first answered 28/09/2022 11:30:05 answering member 4487 label Biography information for Kelly Tolhurst
tabling member	4471 label Biography information for Rachael Maskell

1506540

registered interest
date	20/09/2022
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Oak National Academy: Competition
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 impact of the establishment of Oak National Academy as a public body on the operation of the wider market for commercial educational resources.
tabling member constituency	Houghton and Sunderland South
tabling member printed	Bridget Phillipson
uin	51614
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/09/2022 answer text <p>As an integral part of the process to set up Oak National Academy as an arm’s length body, the department produced a business case which included an assessment of potential market impact. This business case will be published shortly. Monitoring market impact will be a priority throughout Oak National Academy’s lifetime and will be factored into the body’s ongoing evaluation and two-year review.</p> answering member constituency Rochester and Strood answering member printed Kelly Tolhurst question first answered 28/09/2022 10:51:29 answering member 4487 label Biography information for Kelly Tolhurst
tabling member	4046 label Biography information for Bridget Phillipson

1506541

registered interest
date	20/09/2022
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Oak National Academy: Finance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what budget his Department has allocated to Oak National Academy in the financial year 2022-2023; how that money will be spent in the remainder of the financial year; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Houghton and Sunderland South
tabling member printed	Bridget Phillipson
uin	51615
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/09/2022 answer text <p>A total of £9.8 million has been budgeted for Oak National Academy in the financial year 2022/2023.</p><p>Oak National Academy will continue to work with teachers across the country, giving them and their pupils access to high-quality digital curriculum resources which are free, optional, and adaptable. These optional resources will be available across the UK, helping teachers deliver a high-quality curriculum.</p><p>Oak will begin a procurement of full curriculum packages this autumn. Based on sector feedback and in line with the government’s strategic priorities, the first group of six subjects will be: English, maths, science, history, geography and music. Oak’s intention is to have some limited, new resources available in September 2023, with most of Oak’s existing resources maintained on the platform in the interim. Full curriculum packages in the first group of subjects will be available by September 2024.</p><p>A portion of the £9.8 million of funding was allocated through the Grant Funding Agreement which enabled Oak National Academy to maintain its activity prior to becoming a non-departmental public body.</p> answering member constituency Rochester and Strood answering member printed Kelly Tolhurst question first answered 28/09/2022 16:43:16 answering member 4487 label Biography information for Kelly Tolhurst
tabling member	4046 label Biography information for Bridget Phillipson

1506542

registered interest
date	20/09/2022
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Schools: Finance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions he has had with school leaders on the adequacy of levels of school budgets in autumn 2022.
tabling member constituency	Houghton and Sunderland South
tabling member printed	Bridget Phillipson
uin	51616
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/10/2022 answer text <p>The Department continues to speak to a range of organisations representing Head Teachers and directly to Head Teachers themselves. Discussions have included school funding and build on the regular engagement the Department has already had.</p><p>Overall, core schools funding, including funding for both mainstream and high needs schools, is increasing by £4 billion in 2022/23 financial year compared to 2021/22. This brings the total core schools budget to £53.8 billion. This means the total funding allocated to schools and high needs seeing a 7% cash terms per pupil increase in the 2022/23 financial year compared to the previous financial year.</p><p>On 21 September 2022, the Government set out how businesses and public sector organisations, including schools, will be supported by the Energy Bill Relief Scheme. This will reduce how much schools need to spend on their energy, and give schools greater certainty over their budgets over the winter months.</p><p>Any school which has signed a fixed energy contract since April 2022 will be eligible for support if, at the time they signed their contact, wholesale prices for the next six months were expected to be higher than the Government-supported price of £211/MWh for electricity, and £75/MWh for gas.</p><p>For example, a school which uses 10 MWh of electricity and 22 MWh of gas a month and signed a fixed contract giving them a current monthly energy bill of about £10,000, would receive support based on the difference between expected wholesale prices when they signed their contract and the Government-supported price. For a contract signed in July 2022, this could be worth £240/MWh for electricity and £70/MWh for gas, meaning the school receives a discount of £4,000 per month, reducing their original bill by 40%.</p><p>Support will also be available to schools on variable, deemed and other contracts.</p><p>The details of the scheme can be found here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/energy-bill-relief-scheme-help-for-businesses-and-other-non-domestic-customers" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/guidance/energy-bill-relief-scheme-help-for-businesses-and-other-non-domestic-customers</a>.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Stoke-on-Trent North answering member printed Jonathan Gullis question first answered 17/10/2022 16:35:34 answering member 4814 label Biography information for Jonathan Gullis
tabling member	4046 label Biography information for Bridget Phillipson

1506544

registered interest
date	20/09/2022
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Free School Meals: Finance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when his Department last made an assessment of the real terms value of the money allocated per meal for children on (a) universal infant and (b) other free school meals; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Houghton and Sunderland South
tabling member printed	Bridget Phillipson
uin	51618
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/09/2022 answer text <p>At the point of any spending review, value is considered when decisions are made on any changes to meal rates. Other features such as inflation and the changing cost of living are also factors taken into account.</p><p>Core schools funding has increased, including the ‘Free School Meals factor’, in the National Funding Formula (NFF) having increased to £470 per eligible pupil this year. In recognition of cost pressures, after the NFF rates were set, we provided additional core funding through a schools supplementary grant. As a result, mainstream schools funding is increasing by £2.5 billion in 2022/23, compared to last year.</p><p>Following extensive consultation when the national funding formula (NFF) was first introduced, schools attracted £440 per pupil in FSM funding in 2018/19 and 2019/20. Since then, the per pupil rate for FSM has increased in line with inflation forecasts in every year.</p><p>Ordinarily the new funding rates take effect from the start of the academic year, however, we recognise that schools are under cost pressures and some suppliers may have been forced to increase prices already. That is why we have backdated the increase to start from April 2022.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Rochester and Strood answering member printed Kelly Tolhurst question first answered 28/09/2022 10:56:18 answering member 4487 label Biography information for Kelly Tolhurst
tabling member	4046 label Biography information for Bridget Phillipson

1506546

registered interest
date	20/09/2022
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Schools: Air Conditioning
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 (a) effectiveness and (b) efficiency of the roll out of air purification equipment in English schools in winter 2021.
tabling member constituency	Houghton and Sunderland South
tabling member printed	Bridget Phillipson
uin	51620
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/09/2022 answer text <p>The Department has not made an assessment on the effectiveness and efficiency on the rollout of air purification devices.</p><p>The Department has delivered over 386,000 CO<sub>2</sub> monitors to state-funded education settings, including early years, schools, and further education providers, to help manage ventilation needs against thermal comfort.</p><p>Where areas of poor ventilation were identified that could not be quickly fixed, the Department provided over 8,000 air cleaning units with HEPA filters as a temporary measure while any identified, underlying ventilation issues were addressed.</p><p>More information can be found at: <a href="https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/delivery-of-air-cleaning-units" target="_blank">https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/delivery-of-air-cleaning-units</a>.</p><p>On 11 March 2022, the Department invited 1,299 education providers which had received Department-funded air cleaning units to participate in a survey to evaluate how the units were being used.</p><p>More information about the evaluation and its findings can be found at: <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1086631/FINAL_ACU_CO2_Evaluation_30_June_2022.pdf" target="_blank">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1086631/FINAL_ACU_CO2_Evaluation_30_June_2022.pdf</a>.</p><p>The Department will continue to work closely with the Department of Health and Social Care on outcomes from trials to assess the impact of air purification devices.</p> answering member constituency Stoke-on-Trent North answering member printed Jonathan Gullis question first answered 28/09/2022 15:55:26 answering member 4814 label Biography information for Jonathan Gullis
tabling member	4046 label Biography information for Bridget Phillipson

1506548

registered interest
date	20/09/2022
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Schools: Buildings
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when he plans to next hold discussions with (a) the Chancellor of the Exchequer and (b) other Ministers in the Treasury on the physical condition of the school estate in England.
tabling member constituency	Houghton and Sunderland South
tabling member printed	Bridget Phillipson
uin	51622
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/09/2022 answer text <p>The Department engages regularly with His Majesty’s Treasury on a number of matters, including capital investment in the school estate. This includes official level and ministerial level engagement where appropriate.</p><p>Well-maintained, safe school buildings are a priority for the Department. The Department has allocated over £13 billion in capital funding since 2015, for improving the condition of the school estate, including £1.8 billion in the 2022/2023 financial year. In addition, the Department’s school rebuilding programme will transform 500 schools over the next decade.</p> answering member constituency Stoke-on-Trent North answering member printed Jonathan Gullis question first answered 28/09/2022 10:11:18 answering member 4814 label Biography information for Jonathan Gullis
tabling member	4046 label Biography information for Bridget Phillipson

1506549

registered interest
date	20/09/2022
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Further Education: Finance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has had discussions with further education college principals on the adequacy of the level of college budgets in autumn 2022.
tabling member constituency	Houghton and Sunderland South
tabling member printed	Bridget Phillipson
uin	51623
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/09/2022 answer text <p>The department is in continual dialogue with the Association of Colleges (AoC), which is the representative body for Further Education Colleges, most recently over the summer when senior officials met with the AoC Chief Executive regarding college finances.</p><p>We also have an established process for monitoring college financial resilience, which includes colleges submitting financial forecasts to the department on an annual basis.</p><p>In addition, to better understand the energy cost pressures colleges are facing and the potential impact of this, we sent out a short survey for colleges to complete and return and we are analysing the information with a view to determine next steps. We will use the information from this survey alongside the recent announcement regarding the Government Energy Bill Relief Scheme to support colleges with the energy cost pressures.</p> answering member constituency Morley and Outwood answering member printed Andrea Jenkyns question first answered 27/09/2022 15:34:44 answering member 4490 label Biography information for Dame Andrea Jenkyns
tabling member	4046 label Biography information for Bridget Phillipson

1506550

registered interest
date	20/09/2022
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	BTEC Qualifications: Assessments
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reasons BTEC students studying with multiple examination boards had delays in receiving their results in summer 2022; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Houghton and Sunderland South
tabling member printed	Bridget Phillipson
uin	51624
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/09/2022 answer text <p>Final grades for BTECs are awarded differently to GCSEs and A levels – they are modular assessments from a range of different sources and can be awarded year-round. A claim needs to be sent to the awarding organisation for the final grade to be calculated. If this claim is not finalised the final award cannot be made. The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) is responsible for ensuring that awarding organisations deliver qualifications in line with their regulations, this includes the awarding of grades. The department met daily with Ofqual and UCAS to ensure swift action was taken to get any delayed grades to students promptly, particularly those who needed their results for a higher education place. These meetings ended when we were fully assured that these students had received their grades.</p><p>Ofqual has now initiated a full review of what happened, to establish the contributing factors, and confirmed they will take regulatory action, if appropriate.</p><p>The mid-course grades for assessments taken this summer by Health and Science T Level students were sent to the ‘Manage T Level Results’ service, administered by the department. Since then, we have worked closely with Ofqual, the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, the awarding organisation concerned and with schools and colleges, to develop mitigations that support students to receive grades that reflect their performance and will allow them to progress to the next stage of their careers.</p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Morley and Outwood answering member printed Andrea Jenkyns grouped question UIN 51625 question first answered 27/09/2022 12:17:00 answering member 4490 label Biography information for Dame Andrea Jenkyns
tabling member	4046 label Biography information for Bridget Phillipson

1506220

registered interest
date	08/09/2022
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Schools: Energy
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 ensure that schools are not substantially impacted by rising energy prices.
tabling member constituency	Southport
tabling member printed	Damien Moore
uin	49761
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/09/2022 answer text <p>Schools will benefit from the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, which will run until at least 31 March 2023. This will reduce how much schools need to spend on their energy and give schools greater certainty over their budgets during the winter months.</p><p>Any school which has signed a fixed energy contract since April 2022 will be eligible for support if, at the time they signed their contact, wholesale prices for the next 6 months were expected to be higher than the Government supported price of £211/MWh for electricity, and £75/MWh for gas.</p><p>For example, a school which uses 10 MWh of electricity and 22 MWh of gas a month and signed a fixed contract giving them a current monthly energy bill of about £10,000, would receive support based on the difference between expected wholesale prices when they signed their contract and the Government supported price. For a contract signed in July 2022, this could be worth £240/MWh for electricity and £70/MWh for gas, meaning the school receives a discount of £4,000 per month, reducing their original bill by 40%.</p><p>Support will also be available to schools on variable, deemed and other contracts.</p><p>There will be a review in 3 months time to determine how the scheme should best be targeted beyond this period to focus support on vulnerable sectors.</p><p>The details of the scheme can be found here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/energy-bill-relief-scheme-help-for-businesses-and-other-non-domestic-customers" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/guidance/energy-bill-relief-scheme-help-for-businesses-and-other-non-domestic-customers</a>.</p><p>The Government is also providing schools with the largest cash boost in a decade. Following the 2021 Spending Review, core schools funding (including funding for both mainstream schools and high needs) is increasing by £4 billion in 2022/23 compared to the previous year.</p><p>The Department knows that schools are facing higher costs and that these costs impact schools differently depending on their circumstance. The Department will continue to monitor these pressures and support schools in managing them, through our range of school resource management tools. Where schools are in serious financial difficulty, they should contact their local authority or the Education and Skills Funding Agency.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Stoke-on-Trent North answering member printed Jonathan Gullis question first answered 27/09/2022 09:02:03 answering member 4814 label Biography information for Jonathan Gullis
tabling member	4669 label Biography information for Damien Moore