(Stretford and Urmston) (Lab)
(Urgent Question): To ask the Secretary of State for Education if
he will make a statement on the impact of coronavirus on
attendance in education settings and support for pupils to
catch-up on lost learning.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education
()
Mr Speaker, I am terribly grateful to you for granting this
urgent question during my first week in the job. We would all
like to thank school staff for their ongoing dedication to pupils
at what has obviously been an extremely difficult time.
Regular school attendance is vital for children’s education,
wellbeing and long-term development. I am pleased to report that
attendance last week was higher than at the same time last year,
with 91.9% of students attending and 99.9% of all state-funded
schools open. We know that the impact of coronavirus has been
felt strongly in schools. The evidence is clear that being out of
education causes significant harm to attainment, life chances,
mental health and physical health. Data from the autumn 2020
school census showed that 60% of pupils had some period when they
did not attend school in circumstances relating to covid-19
during the autumn term. That represents 33 million days missed,
and analysis shows that every day of education missed matters.
That is why this Government are rightly focused on reducing the
disruption to education: we have put an end to the self-isolation
of whole bubbles; under-18s no longer need to self-isolate after
contact with a positive case; secondary pupils were tested on
their return, to help limit transmission, and will continue to
test this term; and just last week this Government announced the
roll-out of vaccinations for all 12 to 15-year-olds. Our
communications programme has promoted the importance of
attendance and we continue to monitor the data closely.
We are also fully committed to helping pupils to catch up. Our £3
billion investment in recovery includes more than £950 million
for schools to best support the most affected children. That will
have a material impact in closing gaps that have emerged. We
continue to work closely with local authorities and schools to
help them re-engage pupils. The Government’s Supporting Families
programme continues to work with families where attendance is a
significant concern, and we are providing support to tackle
mental health issues, which will improve attendance further. That
includes £7 million for local authorities to deliver the
wellbeing for education recovery programme, and £9.5 million to
train senior mental health leads in up to 7,800 schools and
colleges. We are also recruiting a team of expert attendance
advisers to work with local authorities to help them improve
their services and the consistency and quality of their
attendance interventions.
The next stage includes a review of time spent in school and 16
to 19 education, and the impact that this could have on helping
children and young people to catch up. To support and re-engage
the most at-risk pupils, we are investing £45 million in the new
safe and alternative provision taskforces, bringing together
specialist support in schools and AP settings in serious violence
hotspots. We are also joining up support by expanding the role of
virtual school heads, which is a wonderful initiative, to cover
all children, with a social worker to provide additional support
on attendance and attainment for many of the most vulnerable
pupils.
The impact of the pandemic has been significant, and this
Government continue to act tirelessly to help our children
recover their education and wellbeing, with the help of our
excellent teaching profession.
Thank you for granting this urgent question, Mr Speaker. Although
I am sorry that the Secretary of State is not in his place, I
warmly congratulate the Minister on his appointment. I know he
will agree with me that nothing is more important than our
children’s futures. But during the pandemic the Government have
treated children and young people as an afterthought, failing to
take the action that teachers, parents, pupils and the Labour
party have been calling for to keep children in school. Some
122,000 children were out of school last week. Yesterday, the
chief medical officer warned that covid is spreading fastest
among secondary-age pupils. When will the Government act to
improve ventilation in schools, colleges and universities? Will
the Minister explain the Government’s rationale on masks, which
saw them required in schools in March but not now, when covid
rates are more than 400 times higher?
We welcome the advice of the chief medical officers to roll out
the vaccine to 12 to 15-year-olds, but already there are reports
of pressure on school nursing services. Will the Minister
guarantee that all first doses will have been administered by
October half-term?
Shockingly, there are reports that some schools are experiencing
anti-vaccination protests. What action is being taken to ensure
that no school faces threats and intimidation?
In Education questions on 6 September, the then Secretary of
State, the right hon. Member for South Staffordshire (), hinted
that the Government may cease recommending twice-weekly home
testing at the end of this month, even though covid continues to
spread. Will the Minister reconfirm the plans on testing? How
will he ensure that testing at home is carried out, after the
drop-off we saw last year?
Even before the latest surge in absences, children had missed an
average of 115 days of school. The Conservatives’ paltry recovery
plan comes nowhere close to tackling what is needed. Labour’s
plan commits to extending the school day to give time for
breakfast clubs and new activities, small-group tutoring, expert
mental health support, and training for our world-class school
staff. Will the Minister commit today to matching Labour’s
ambition?
I thank the hon. Lady for tabling the urgent question and for her
opening remarks. I am sure we will not always see eye-to-eye, but
we both have a great concern for children in this country and I
look forward to working with her on that score. Nevertheless, I
do not want to take too many lectures from the Labour party on
this subject. We all clearly remember how last year Labour
consistently refused to say that schools were safe for children
to go back.
The challenges that we currently face are obviously substantial,
but great improvements have been made. At the end of the previous
term, attendance in school was at 75%; as of Thursday last week,
attendance was at 91.9%, with 99.9% of all schools open. That is
a tribute to the very hard work done by our health service and
the very hard work that is currently being done in schools. I am
sure the whole House pays tribute to that work.
Our Department has an absolute determination to be led by the
best evidence, and that determination is shared across
Government. Probably no one in the Government understands data
and evidence bases better than my new boss, the Secretary of
State for Education, my right hon. Friend the Member for
Stratford-on-Avon (). When the evidence changes and the situation changes,
so we change our policy.
The hon. Lady asked about face masks; at some stages in the
pandemic we have had face masks in corridors, strict social
distancing and bubbles, but the evidence now says that we can
move away from that. That is much to the good, because anyone who
has ever worked in schools, as I have, will know that it is
difficult to conduct proper education when children have their
faces covered. I strongly welcome the fact that we have been able
to make a change on that score.
Over the course of the pandemic, we have put £3 billion into
helping schools and the education recovery. That includes £1.5
billion for evidence-based tutoring programmes that are going to
help children, including the most vulnerable, to catch up. I am
delighted to have discovered that £220 million is being spent so
that vulnerable children can attend holiday activities and food
programmes in all local authorities. We have £79 million to
support those children who have been suffering with the worst
mental health problems—mental health is a dreadful problem that I
know many Members will have heard about in their constituency
surgeries—and £17 million for mental health and wellbeing
training in schools.
The hon. Lady rightly asked about the dreadful anti-vaccination
protests we have seen. They are totally unacceptable. The level
of intimidation of schools and teachers is abhorrent.
I make it absolutely clear to any headteacher or teacher who is
watching this that, contrary to some of the things they have been
told, legal liability rests not with schools, but with the health
service and those providing vaccinations. I thank schools very
much for the spaces they have created and the consent forms they
have provided, but they should rest assured that it is the health
service that is providing these jabs and offering the support.
Any school facing intimidation should let the Department know
about it so that we can follow it up.
This is a difficult time for education, but things are getting
better. They are getting better because of the actions that this
Government have taken to roll out one of the best vaccine
programmes in the world and to support children and their
teachers in school.
Mr Speaker
I call the Chair of the Education Committee.
(Harlow) (Con)
I am pleased to see the Minister, my hon. Friend and constituency
neighbour, in his place.
As I understand it from our discussions with the chief medical
officer at the Education Committee yesterday and from the
Government, the key purpose of the vaccination programme is to
keep our children in school. However, I have been sent a letter
by parents about the Teddington School in Middlesex, run by
Bourne Education Trust, that shows that all students will be sent
home on Friday 24 September, after a day of vaccinations today.
Therefore, despite Government guidance, there are examples of
schools doing this, or of whole year groups being grounded at
home or even closed down completely. Will my hon. Friend make
sure that schools follow Government guidance to the letter and do
not send children home? He should ring the headteachers himself
to make sure that we keep our children learning. Will he also
ensure that the catch-up fund reaches the poorest and most
disadvantaged students, because we know that 44% of students
receiving the pupil premium are being missed, and that there are
huge regional disparities as well?
I thank my right hon. Friend for his question, and I look forward
to working with him in his role as Chair of the Education
Committee and as a venerable defender of the needs of children
and of the voters who follow.
It is extremely important that schools follow departmental
guidance. I am sure that my officials will have heard the example
that my right hon. Friend has just given. The message is clear:
the best place for children is in schools and there are very
clear criteria that tell us when children should be there.
(Walthamstow) (Lab/Co-op)
The Minister rightly recognises the toll on the mental health of
children in this country over the past year. In Waltham Forest,
many schools dug deep and paid for external counselling services
for the children and are now facing big gaps in their budgets.
Having said how important it is that no school in this country
should be out of pocket, will the Minister commit today to fully
reimburse those schools for the cost of counselling over the past
18 months to help our children get through the pandemic?
I thank both the hon. Lady for her question and the school in her
constituency for the work that it has done to look after its
pupils; it sounds as though it has gone above and beyond. As I
said in answer to the shadow Secretary of State a few moments
ago, the Department has invested considerable amounts of money in
supporting children’s mental health. There has been £79 million
across the piece, and £17 million for training for mental health
and wellbeing in schools. We are fully aware that this is one of
the lasting consequences of the pandemic, and we will step in to
support schools every inch of the way.
(Stoke-on-Trent North) (Con)
I find the irony of this urgent question being called by those on
the Labour Front Bench somewhat mystifying, because they went
missing throughout the pandemic, and there was silence on the
issue of schools. It is not just me who thinks this. Let me
quote:
“Labour’s silence on closing schools is completely ridiculous.”
That was Corbynista Owen Jones saying that, so it is not just we
on the Conservative Benches who think it. The NEU—or the “not
education union” as we should refer to it—continually wanting to
shut schools, and Labour keeping silent despite the donations
running into its party coffers tell us everything that we need to
know. Can my hon. Friend confirm to me that, no matter what
happens this winter, schools will be kept open, pupils will be
learning face to face and, in that way, they will catch up
exactly as they need to.
I thank my hon. Friend for his passionate question. He has
first-hand experience of working in schools, and I look forward
to leaning on his expertise while I am in this job. It is
absolutely the Government’s intention to keep schools open. We
are clear that schools are the right place for children. The cost
of children not being in school is extremely serious, so it is
very much our hope that schools will be open from this point on.
(Birmingham, Erdington) (Lab)
Erdington is one of England’s poorest constituencies, but it is
rich in talent. I pay tribute to the headteachers, who do an
outstanding job in the most difficult circumstances. In a survey
I conducted of schools in my area, I found that 60% expect to set
a deficit budget next financial year, and 100% said that they do
not have sufficient support for their pupils with special
educational needs and disabilities. Of the schools that applied
for exceptional costs funding, 75% received funding amounting to
less than half the costs. Is it not the simple reality that
school spending by the Government is still lower than in 2009-10,
and that after tearing up the catch-up recommendations made by
their own adviser, they have allocated to schools a fifth of what
was asked for? Is it not the simple truth that a whole generation
of children and young people are growing up without the support
that they deserve from their Government?
The hon. Gentleman is a doughty defender of pupils on his patch.
The Government have already spent £3 billion on helping schools
to get through the pandemic. As I have said, we have invested
£1.5 billion in evidence-led programmes, and we have a high
degree of confidence that they will help children to catch up
some of the time that they have lost in school. Since the Prime
Minister took over two and a half years ago, he has been clear
about his ambition to return per pupil spending to what it was in
2010. Obviously there is also an imminent spending review, in
which other things are being considered.
(Bury North) (Con)
Will my hon. Friend confirm that keeping children in school and
educational settings is an absolute priority? Does he agree that
children with special educational needs and those on education,
health and care plans should be given the bespoke support that
they need to maximise attendance and thrive in the school
environment—a shining example being Hoyle Nursery School in my
constituency?
My hon. Friend is right that we have to help the most vulnerable
children to overcome the problems of the pandemic. Children with
special educational needs are very much on our radar. We have
consistently prioritised children who attend specialist settings
by providing additional uplifts in the 2020 catch-up premium and
the 2021 recovery premium. Specialist settings will receive an
uplift to deliver summer schools and will have the flexibility to
deliver provision based on pupils’ needs. I understand my hon.
Friend’s concerns; for about eight years, I was the vice-chair of
governors at a special school in west London, so I have seen the
remarkable work that such schools can do to change children’s
lives. We absolutely have our mind on this agenda.
(Nottingham South) (Lab)
We know how important good ventilation is to protect staff and
students from the spread of covid, and to keep schools safe and
open. The Welsh Government are funding better ventilation in
schools. Why are this Government not doing the same?
I am delighted to hear that the Welsh Government are improving
ventilation in schools. The Government in Westminster are doing
precisely the same. We have spent £25 million on installing CO2
monitors, with 300,000 monitors going out right now. We are
starting with special schools and then rolling them out across
the estate.
(Milton Keynes North) (Con)
I recently met the impressive young people from Milton Keynes
Youth Cabinet, who highlighted to me the difficulties with mental
health that children suffered during the pandemic, and of course
we discussed catch-up. It is great that the Department have
announced the consultation on discipline and behaviour in
schools. Does the Minister agree that discipline, behaviour and
structure are key to good mental health, and to catching up on
what we have lost over the last few months and years?
I could not agree more strongly. We need schools to be calm,
well-ordered places of learning. These are the environments in
which children flourish most. That is why, since 2010, this
Government have prioritised behaviour.
(Gateshead) (Lab)
I welcome the Minister to his place and look forward to him
appearing in front of the Education Committee later in the
autumn. I declare an interest in that I am the chair of governors
of a primary school and a member of an academy trust board.
Disruption is still occurring because even vaccinated people and
children can contract and transmit the infection. Headteachers
and their staff, as the Minister has outlined, are continuing to
work above and beyond but are struggling in many places to keep
their schools going as they would want to. What more can he do to
give schools the support they so desperately need so that they
can effectively educate the children while also safeguarding
those children and the staff? I am afraid that in many places the
measures that he has outlined are proving to be far from
adequate.
My heart stopped for a moment because I thought the hon.
Gentleman said that he looked forward to my appearing in front of
the Education Committee this afternoon, but the autumn is
fine—probably. He raises a very important point, because
obviously we do want to see children back in school. As he will
have heard me say, we have substantial improvement on where we
were at the end of last term. Ordinarily of a September,
pre-pandemic, we would expect about 95% of children to be in
school. Last Thursday, the figure was 91.9%. We are very keen to
make up that gap and we are working tirelessly to do so. One of
the things I have not mentioned is that the DFE has
REACT—regional education and children’s teams—working across the
country with local authorities, regional schools commissioners
and schools themselves to clamp down on outbreaks where they take
place and to help children to get back into school as quickly as
possible.
(Runnymede and Weybridge) (Con)
It is great to see my hon. Friend in his place at the Dispatch
Box. I welcome the work this Government have done to make it a
priority to keep schools open for face-to-face learning. In
contrast, Labour equivocated over whether they were even safe to
reopen. Does he agree that if Labour were in power, our schools
would probably be closed for face-to-face learning and our
children left behind?
I thank my hon. Friend for his thoughtful question. We have been
very clear throughout that we wanted to get schools open as soon
as it was safe to do so. We have done that. We have managed to
increase attendance from 75% at the end of last term to 91.1% at
the start of this term. There is a lot further to go. However, it
is the roll-out of our vaccination programme across the country,
with the high uptake and the hard work of our health service,
that has enabled us to get to this point. Children are better off
in education and they are able to be in education because of the
steps this Government have taken.
(York Central) (Lab/Co-op)
The roll-out of the national tutoring programme has been
shambolic, as has been evidenced right across the country,
including in my constituency. Will the Minister consider
allocating the money to local authorities, which already have the
relationships with local providers, in order to ensure that
additional support for young people can be provided expediently?
I am afraid that I do not recognise the hon. Lady’s description
of the national tutoring programme as such. It is based on the
very best evidence, it has a very large sum of public money
behind it, and we are highly confident that it is going to help
children to recover and get back.
(Forest of Dean) (Con)
It is indeed a great pleasure to see my hon. Friend at the
Dispatch Box. Thank you, Mr Speaker, for giving him the chance to
strut his stuff in his first week in the job. He will make a fine
addition to the Department for Education.
May I press my hon. Friend on keeping children in school? I
completely agree with him that that is the priority, so will he
look again with a fresh set of eyes at routinely testing children
who have no symptoms and are not ill? The Royal College of
Paediatrics and Child Health thinks that routine testing of
asymptomatic children should stop, because that is what is
keeping them out of school, and I agree. Will he look at that,
get rid of routine testing, test only children who have symptoms
and send home only children who are unwell?
My right hon. Friend is extremely learned in these matters. We
have a testing programme in place to ensure that we limit the
number of pupils in schools who have coronavirus. That was
obviously the case as schools went back. I am sure that the
relevant Minister will have heard his remarks.
(Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)
Hull is one of the most disadvantaged parts of the country, and
there will be no levelling up without catching up. Will the
Minister commit to the necessary catching-up budget proposed by
his adviser, Sir ?
As I have said a number of times, we have put in £3 billion, with
£1.5 billion on tutoring for 6 million tutoring programmes—100
million hours of tutoring—and an additional 2 million tutoring
programmes in 16 to 19 education. That is evidence-based, and we
have a high degree of confidence that it will help children
recover and get over the worst of the pandemic. The right hon.
Lady will have also heard me say that a spending review is coming
up.
(Harrow East)
(Con)
I welcome my hon. Friend to his position; I am sure he will do an
excellent job. He rightly points out that the vaccination
programme for young people is a public health matter. However,
what support is being given to schools, teachers, parents and
young people to combat the anti-vaxxers who are obviously
misleading people on the benefits of ensuring that young people
are vaccinated and therefore safe to be in school?
My hon. Friend raises an extremely important point. It is totally
unacceptable that any teacher or headteacher is being placed
under that pressure. The lies spread by certain groups are
outrageous and have unquestionably made life uncomfortable for
some people working in schools. I reiterate that schools
following the guidelines are doing exactly the right thing. They
are not legally liable for what happens. I understand that, so
far, all participating schools are doing so in a highly
professional manner.
(Barnsley
East) (Lab)
As the Minister rightly acknowledged, the need for mental health
support for young people has risen significantly during the
pandemic, yet providers of that support such as the fantastic
charity TADS in Barnsley are struggling to access funding. I
acknowledge his commitment to funding, but how will he ensure
that it gets to the frontline? What can he do to help charities
such as the one that I represent?
I have heard of TADS on my travels—it is an excellent charity. If
she would like to send the details to the Department, I am happy
to look into that for her.
(South Basildon and East Thurrock) (Con)
We all know that the best place for young people is in school,
learning in a classroom. Will my hon. Friend therefore confirm
that when the Opposition next make a call for schools to close,
he and the Secretary of State will do all they can to resist
those siren calls and keep our kids in school?
Be in no doubt that we want children to be in school and learning
in school. It is the best place for them to be for their
education, their mental health and their futures. We will do all
that we can to keep them where they are.
(Denton
and Reddish) (Lab)
The Minister has spoken about catch-up funding, and I got to see
at first hand some of the great work being done at Denton
Community College with its summer school over the summer
holidays. However, no amount of summer schools will enable
children to fully catch up on the work they have missed out on,
so what more is he going to do to help the covid cohort properly
catch up and be able to excel, as we would all hope they will be
able to do?
I thank the hon. Gentleman, and it is very good to hear about
what he saw going on in Denton in his constituency during the
summer. The tutoring programme is at the very heart of our
response in helping children catch up, in so far as it is
possible to do so. We know from the very best international and
national data that when children have one-to-one or one-to-two
tuition, it can be revolutionary for their learning, and that is
why this Department is channelling money and effort into it.
(Kettering)
(Con)
I warmly congratulate my hon. Friend on his thoroughly well
deserved appointment.
Schools in Kettering are doing their very best, but are facing a
very challenging time at the moment with some rapidly rising
covid rates, especially in secondary settings. Could we have some
specialised support and enhanced efforts from Public Health
England and the Department to help them to get on top of this?
I thank my hon. Friend for his question and his remarks. As I
mentioned a moment ago, there are DFE REACT teams working around
the country, and their role is to work with schools, local
authorities and regional schools commissioners to tackle
precisely this problem. I am sure that, if he were to get in
touch with the Department, it would be able to fill him in more
on what is happening in his area.
(Strangford) (DUP)
I welcome the Minister to his place, and I wish him well in his
new role.
In Northern Ireland, the Education Minister has given schools
funding grants for catch-up learning, which many high schools
have taken advantage of. This has become even more necessary due
to the coronavirus, which is the thrust of this urgent question.
Does the Minister not agree that we cannot lose focus on the
early years intervention for P3 classes with a reading age a full
year behind, and how does he intend to stop that lag-behind
following those children through their whole academic life?
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his comments. Since I was a
Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Northern Ireland Office, I
have long believed there is a great deal we can learn from
Northern Ireland in this place, and we often learn it from the
hon. Gentleman. It is absolutely essential that we support early
years, but also children at every stage in their education, to
overcome the worst of this pandemic, and I have no doubt that
that is what this Department will be doing in the months ahead.
(Darlington) (Con)
I welcome my hon. Friend to his place. I commend his Department
for its successful efforts to eliminate the barrier of digital
exclusion by providing 1.3 million laptops and tablets to
disadvantaged students during the pandemic. Can he confirm that
that investment will continue for those pupils?
Yes, all of the 1.35 million laptops that my hon. Friend refers
to are still in use and are still out in the community. It was a
major offer that the Government made to children who were
digitally disadvantaged and it came, as he will recall, with a
wi-fi offer, which made sure they had the connectivity they
needed. This was a very important initiative by the DFE, and we
are sticking by it.
(Sedgefield) (Con)
Last week, I had the pleasure of visiting Greenfield school in
Newton Aycliffe in the Sedgefield constituency, and it was great
to see so many children and teachers back where they belong. With
the advent of being able to get vaccines for 12 to 15-year-olds,
can I ask the Minister to make sure that both the parents and
their children are getting the proper information about the
validity of vaccines for both groups, not listening to the
nonsense on some aspects of social media?
Absolutely. The best source of information on vaccines is,
remains, and will always be the NHS. Hon. Members can rest
assured that the Government are following the Gillick
competencies, which have been in place since the mid-80s.
(Rother
Valley) (Con)
This year Wales High School in Rother Valley is celebrating its
50th year, and it was a pleasure to join it in its celebrations a
few weeks ago. Will my hon. Friend celebrate not only that great
achievement, but people’s hard work in keeping the school open
during the covid crisis, including putting in measures and
guidelines that go above Government recommendations?
Absolutely, and I thank not only my hon. Friend’s school but all
schools across the country that have gone above and beyond at
this very difficult time. We have asked a great deal of our
teachers and school leaders, and they have risen to the
challenge.
(Devizes) (Con)
I am delighted to see my hon. Friend in his place. Will he join
me in congratulating schools across Wiltshire, and particularly
in my constituency, on getting back to work so effectively and
educating all their children once again? Now that 12 to
15-year-olds are eligible for the vaccine, does he agree it is
important that all children, and their parents, get the proper
information, so that they can make the right decision for
themselves and their community?
It sounds like Devizes is doing a cracking job in meeting the
challenges of covid, and I say again to all parents, teachers and
pupils who are looking for advice that the NHS is the place to
go, and we are in safe hands when we take its advice.
