Skills and Apprenticeships: Funding Siobhan Baillie (Stroud) (Con)
1. What steps her Department is taking to fund skills and
apprenticeships. Sara Britcliffe (Hyndburn) (Con) 4. What steps her
Department is taking to fund skills and apprenticeships. Royston
Smith (Southampton, Itchen) (Con) 9. What steps her Department is
taking to fund skills and apprenticeships. The Secretary of State
for Education (Gillian Keegan) As I am sure everybody knows, I
will...Request free trial
Skills and Apprenticeships: Funding
(Stroud) (Con)
1. What steps her Department is taking to fund skills and
apprenticeships.
(Hyndburn) (Con)
4. What steps her Department is taking to fund skills and
apprenticeships.
(Southampton, Itchen)
(Con)
9. What steps her Department is taking to fund skills and
apprenticeships.
The Secretary of State for Education ()
As I am sure everybody knows, I will never get tired of flying
the flag for apprenticeships and skills. This Government are
investing record levels of funding, with an additional £3.8
billion in skills over this Parliament. That includes an extra
£1.6 billion for 16-to-19 education, and increasing investment in
apprenticeships to £2.7 billion by 2024-25. That supports our
commitment to create a world-leading skills system that is
employer-focused, high quality, and fit for the future.
This Government’s schools, colleges and businesses around the
country are working hard to show young people that going to
university is not the only route to success, and there are now so
many study options, which the RHA, the Federation of Small
Businesses, and lots of Stroud businesses are talking to me about
all the time. What is my right hon. Friend doing to reform the
existing apprenticeship levy to work better for small businesses
and students?
I thank my hon. Friend, and I am proud of all the work we have
done on apprenticeships. We removed the limit on the number of
apprentices that small businesses can take on, and we continue to
pay 100% of training costs for the smallest employers, and allow
levy payers to transfer 25% of their funds to support small and
medium-sized enterprises. We spent 99.6% of the apprenticeship
budget in 2021-22, which has helped to support 8,940
apprenticeship starts in my hon. Friend’s constituency since
2010. To continue that progress and ensure that everyone knows
what apprenticeship opportunities are available, we are working
with UCAS so that for the first time ever, young people will be
able to use UCAS to search and apply for apprenticeships
alongside degrees, making it easier for young people to find the
right opportunity for them.
I thank the Secretary of State for visiting BAE Systems recently
in Lancashire. Accrington and Rossendale College in my Hyndburn
and Haslingden constituency has been successfully rolling out the
T-level programme, but to ensure that young people in my
constituency have the skills they need in areas such as
technology and engineering, further capital investment is needed
to ensure that it can continue to provide state-of-the-art
facilities. Will my right hon. Friend confirm whether there will
be further waves of the T-level capital fund?
I thank my hon. Friend for her question and for joining me on
that visit, which I think was eye-opening for both of us. The
Nelson & Colne College group, which includes Accrington and
Rossendale College in my hon. Friend’s constituency, has
benefited from capital investment of more than £6 million since
2010, including funding to improve the condition of its estate
and support the delivery of T-levels and technical education.
Most recently, it benefited from further investment as one of our
108 T-level capital projects, working towards delivering
engineering and manufacturing T-levels. We will continue to
support the roll-out of T-levels.
The Secretary of State will know that levelling up is about not
geography but opportunity, and what better opportunity can we
give our young people than a first-class education? Southampton
has put in a bid for a university technical college. Will my
right hon. Friend confirm that she has seen our bid and will look
favourably on it, and will she update the House on when we are
likely to hear whether we have been successful?
I thank my hon. Friend for his continuous campaigning on this
subject. I do not know how many meetings we have had, but I see
his passion to get a UTC in Southampton. I recently met Becky
Smith, one of the fantastic former students of UTC Portsmouth,
who is now a degree apprentice studying mechanical engineering at
the University of Chichester in my constituency. She was full of
praise for her time at UTC Portsmouth. We are currently
considering the applications we have received. I have seen them
all, and I have been through them in great detail in the latest
free school wave, including Portsmouth’s bid for a new UTC in
Southampton. We hope to announce the successful applications very
soon.
(Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)
Hospitality and tourism is an industry worth £3.5 billion a year
to Cumbria, and it is our biggest employer. Apprenticeships are
an important way into a career within that sector. The problem is
that T-levels are a useful stepping stone into apprenticeships,
yet the Government have again kicked into the long grass the
T-level on catering, having already taken out the hospitality
element of that. Will the Secretary of State meet me and
representatives from Cumbria Tourism, so we can talk about how
she can change that policy, and so that more young people can
enter that important profession?
I am happy to meet the hon. Gentleman. As he will know, I always
have a laser-like focus on quality, and if the quality is not
good enough then I will not release the apprenticeship, the
apprenticeship standard or the T-level. Too often we have had
low-quality qualifications in this country, and it is important
that we work with a vast array of businesses to ensure that we
get the quality system that they demand and that will be good for
all our young people.
(Huddersfield)
(Lab/Co-op)
May I beg the Minister to pay attention to the fact that good
apprenticeships and good training in any town and city must come
from a blend of good universities—I think most of our
universities are good—with local further education colleges? Will
she take a leaf out of Tony Blair’s book, when he said in a
recent important speech that what we need is more high-class
universities and more polytechnics made up from the new former FE
colleges?
As usual, we are ahead of the Opposition. We have already
invested in 21 institutes of technology, which are where a group
of colleges and universities work with employers in the area.
They are a great addition to the landscape, along with all the
other technical qualifications and skills training that we have
introduced since 2010.
(Rutherglen and Hamilton
West) (Ind)
I welcome the funding made available to the space systems
engineering degree apprenticeship and the opportunities that will
provide young people in the UK’s growing space industry. What
plans do Ministers have to fund similar apprenticeships in other
emerging sectors?
It was a great pleasure to go to the space park in Leicester to
launch the space systems engineering level 6 degree
apprenticeship, on top of the level 4 space engineering
apprenticeship, which I launched previously. There are many
different routes into the space industry, which is important and
something that we are good at in the UK. Any employers or
employer groups wishing to develop an apprenticeship standard
could work with the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical
Education. We have worked with more than 5,000 employers in the
past few years, and we have built more than 670 apprenticeship
standards, none of which existed before we started the programme
in 2012.
Mr Speaker
I call the shadow Minister.
(Chesterfield) (Lab)
New research from the House of Commons Library has shown that the
amount of the apprenticeship levy paid by employers that has been
allocated to the apprenticeship budget has fallen from 89% in
2017 to just 77% in the most recent year. The truthful answer to
the question from the hon. Member for Stroud () is that the Secretary of
State is doing nothing to reform the apprenticeship levy, as she
believes it is working perfectly. Can the Minister confirm that
any employer that, like the hon. Member for Stroud, wants greater
flexibility in the levy should vote Labour in the next general
election?
There is nothing that would make me give such drastic advice. The
truth about the apprenticeship levy is that 99.6% of it will be
spent this year. We can look in the rear view mirror, and there
are some reports going back over time that show some underspend
in the levy, but they are back over time. We are now spending
99.6% of the levy. Perhaps what the hon. Gentleman has not
appreciated is that some of the funding goes to the devolved
Governments. If we examine the apprenticeship system in Wales and
Scotland, it is not a patch on what we have introduced in
England.
Persistent Absence from School
(Tatton) (Con)
2. What steps she is taking to support severely absent pupils
with their attendance.
(Worcester) (Con)
3. What steps she is taking to tackle persistent absence in
secondary schools.
The Secretary of State for Education ()
School attendance is important for not just a child’s education
but their wellbeing and life chances, and it is a personal
priority. We have: rolled out the daily attendance data tool;
launched the attendance action alliance group of system leaders,
which includes representatives from health, policing and social
care; expanded the attendance hub support; and, deployed expert
advice to work with local authorities. Termly persistent absence
fell by a fifth from summer last year to spring this year, with
350,000 fewer persistently absent pupils, but we know we still
have more to do, and it is a top priority for me.
Does the Secretary of State agree that shutting schools during
covid lockdowns was a disaster for children and their mental
health and has led to an explosion in severely absent rates? Will
she make sure that cannot happen again by classifying all
education settings, including schools, colleges and universities,
as essential infrastructure, to ensure they remain open during
national emergencies?
Schools were not shut during lockdown. Many of our fantastic
teachers were still teaching key cohorts, supporting our NHS and
the most vulnerable, such as those with special educational
needs, but I fully share my right hon. Friend’s concerns about
the impact that the pandemic has had on attainment, attendance
and mental health. She knows we are working hard to recover,
making almost £5 billion available for recovery. I can assure her
that we will always seek to minimise the disruption to education
in emergency situations. We all have a lot to learn from the
experience during the pandemic, including the impact on children
of all the decisions that we took, which were led by medical
advice.
Mr Speaker
I call the Chair of the Education Committee.
Mr Walker
It is good to hear the Secretary of State prioritising getting
children into school. Alongside her welcome funded pay offer,
which will hopefully see an end to disruptive strikes, a real
drive to reduce persistent absence and increase attendance would
be welcome. A long-standing recommendation of the Education
Committee is a statutory register of children not in school,
which she is well aware of and has told us is a priority. May I
therefore urge her to rapidly adopt the private Member’s Bill of
my hon. Friend the Member for Meon Valley (Mrs Drummond) so that
we can get on with delivering on that priority?
I thank my hon. Friend for his Committee’s work on this issue,
which really is important. We have a world-class education
system, but we need children in school to be able to take
advantage of that. As he knows, my Department remains committed
to legislating for statutory local authority registers of
children not in school and will do so at the next suitable
legislative opportunity when parliamentary time allows. I will
work closely with my hon. Friend the Member for Meon Valley (Mrs
Drummond) on how we can best introduce that.
(Strangford) (DUP)
I thank the Secretary of State very much for her responses. It is
obvious that she is committed to making things better. In the
light of the covid home-schooling period during which parents may
have forgotten the importance of socialisation as well as
academic education, many may need reminding of the legal
obligation to educate children. Has the Department considered
tidying up the intervention period to allow early intervention
and discussion with parents where possible before any action is
taken?
We are very much taking a supportive approach. We know that there
are complex reasons why some children are missing school—some
have lost their confidence and are anxious about school and how
far they are behind—so we are taking a focused approach. We have
leads in local authorities working closely with schools, and we
are measuring the impact of all the things we are doing, which
includes attendance hubs, as well as looking to support parents
to get their children back into school, where we know their
outcomes will be so much better.
Maths Attainment: Primary Schools
(Harrow East) (Con)
5. What progress her Department has made on improving standards
of attainment in mathematics in primary schools.
The Minister for Schools ()
Ofsted’s report on school maths, published last week, stated:
“In the last few years, a resounding, positive shift in
mathematics education has taken place in primary schools.”
In the 2019 TIMSS international survey of maths attainment for
year 5 pupils, England achieved its highest ever score and rose
from 10th out of 49 countries in 2015 to eighth out of 58
countries.
It is clearly good news that 73% of young people are achieving or
exceeding the expected grades at the standard assessment tests.
Measures have been taken to catch up after covid, which is really
good news, but it is important that we lay the foundations in
primary schools so that young people love mathematics and can
continue to work on it until they are 18. What measures is my
right hon. Friend taking to ensure that?
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. In addition to expanding the
successful maths hubs programme to deliver teaching for mastery
to 75% of primary schools by 2025, we are increasing delivery of
the mastering number programme for reception to year 2, which
helps students achieve fluency with number bonds, to 8,000
schools by 2024. We will also extend the programme into years 4
and 5 to bolster fluency in times tables.
Childcare
(City of Chester) (Lab)
6. What steps she is taking to help ensure the availability of
high-quality childcare.
Mr (South West Hertfordshire)
(Con)
7. What steps her Department is taking to increase the number of
childcare places.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education ()
At the spring statement, we announced the single largest
investment in childcare in England ever. By 2027, the Government
will be spending in excess of £8 billion, doubling the amount
that we do now and helping working families with their childcare
costs.
Good-quality childcare is essential to a child’s early
development, to parents and to the economy. The owners of the
Best Friends Day Nursery and the Spinney Day Nursery in Chester
have told me of the real struggle faced by so many nurseries
across the country, despite the Government’s latest funding
announcement. Many have been forced to close, including five
nurseries in the Hoole area alone in five years. What more will
the Government do to alleviate the situation set out by my
constituents?
As I have mentioned, we are putting the single largest ever
investment into childcare over the next few years, to provide
funding to settings such as the one she mentioned. We are also
looking at things such as workforce, which we know can be a
challenge, making sure that we remove barriers to additional
routes to entry.
South West Hertfordshire is home to lots of young couples,
particularly those who have moved out of London to start their
families. Could the Minister tell the House how her Department is
supporting new parents as they return to work?
That is a huge priority for this Government. The funding that we
are setting out will provide parents with support worth, on
average, £6,500 a year from maternity leave right up to primary
school. We are doing additional work to support things such as
wraparound care.
Mr Speaker
I call the shadow Minister.
(Dulwich and West Norwood)
(Lab)
Across the early years sector, nurseries and childminders are
raising concerns that the Government have no coherent plan for
the expansion of the early years workforce to meet the
requirements of an expanded offer. The only ideas on the table so
far are the relaxation of ratios and a reduction in the
proportion of level 2 qualified staff—plans that the Sutton Trust
has found could lead to worse outcomes for children. Why are this
Government so uninterested in the quality of childcare and the
outcomes that high-quality early years education delivers for
children?
The Government care about education standards. That is seen
across every single result across the board, whether reading or
maths results. It is this Government who care about education
standards. Over 90% of our early years providers are rated good
or outstanding. We will do everything we can to keep them that
way.
Bullying in Schools
Dame (South Northamptonshire)
(Con)
8. What recent steps her Department has taken to tackle bullying
in schools.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education ()
All children should have access to a calm, safe and supportive
school environment. In addition to school behaviours policies
that must include measures to prevent bullying, we have provided
more than £3 million in funding between August 2021 and March
2024 to five anti-bullying organisations supporting schools in
tackling bullying.
Dame
I congratulate my hon. Friend for all her work tackling bullying.
So many constituents write to me about the problems their
children are experiencing. How are the behaviour hubs making a
difference in schools and tackling the bullying that is so
prevalent, particularly as a result of online harms and social
media, which are all too frequent?
We are confident that the behaviour hubs programme is helping
schools to create calm, understanding and positive environments
by spreading best practice. The behaviour hubs programme is being
evaluated and impact assessed. We will publish an interim report
in 2024. I would be delighted to discuss those findings with my
right hon. Friend.
(York Central)
(Lab/Co-op)
Last week I introduced by ten-minute rule Bill on bullying and
respect at work. It is not just children who experience bullying
in the school environment but teachers and other staff. Will the
Minister look at my Bill, which will establish a legal definition
of bullying at work and a route to employment tribunal to protect
the people who are looking after our children in our schools?
I have not seen the hon. Lady’s Bill, but I would be happy to
take a look and have a discussion with her.
Recruitment and Retention
(Easington) (Lab)
10. What steps she is taking to support the recruitment and
retention of teachers in the further education sector.
(City of Durham) (Lab)
22. What recent estimate she has made of the number of teachers
leaving the teaching profession.
The Secretary of State for Education ()
Our teachers do an incredible job and inspire children every day.
Last week, we accepted the independent pay review body’s
recommendations in full, giving schoolteachers their largest pay
award for 30 years of at least 6.5%. I also announced funding for
the further education sector to address key priorities, including
teacher recruitment and retention. To help us get more of the top
talent into teaching, we are delivering on our 2019 manifesto
commitment to raise the starting salary for teachers to a minimum
of £30,000. That is a competitive salary that will help us to
continue to build on the record numbers of teachers in our
schools in England.
The further education sector is facing a teaching crisis, not
fully addressed by the pay review body. In my constituency, East
Durham College has had two teacher vacancies in engineering and a
computer science position unfilled for 18 months. Barriers to
recruitment include high workload, qualification reform,
excessive assessment and a huge pay disparity compared with
comparable work in industry. Could the Secretary of State tell us
what steps she is taking to ensure that further education
teaching is an attractive and viable career?
I very much care about further education and ensuring that it has
the funding. That is why, as of last week, we are investing an
additional £185 million in the financial year 2023-24 and £285
million in 2024-25 to drive forward skills delivery in further
education. The Government do not set pay for the FE sector.
However, I have been clear that I expect that funding, which is
new funding, to go to the frontline. I hope the investment will
support the FE sector to address its recruitment and retention
challenges. In addition, we introduced bursaries of £29,000 for
STEM—science, technology, engineering and maths—subjects, and the
Taking Teaching Further programme is working with industry and
paying £6,000 to attract those from industry who want to spend
their second career in FE teaching.
We have seen a significant increase in the number of teachers
leaving the profession in Durham. They are burnt out and their
unmanageable workloads are made harder by support staff
redundancies in schools where there is an absence of furniture
and equipment, with children even carrying chairs between lessons
so that there is somewhere to sit. One teacher said to me, “It is
like being a baker with no flour, a delivery driver without a
van, an IT specialist without a computer.” When will the
Department provide the absolute basics for our schools in
Durham?
We are going even further than the basics, because we will be
funding education higher than we have ever funded it in our
history. It will be £60 billion next year. But I do take workload
seriously. As part of our discussions with the unions, we have
agreed to set up a workload taskforce, which has a target to
remove five hours from the school working week in addition to the
five hours we have already reduced. Last year, more teachers
entered the profession than left it: 47,954 entered the
profession and 43,997 left it. If we look at the averages, the
leavers rate has been stable since 2010, but we are investing
more in our education system than ever before.
(Rayleigh and Wickford)
(Con)
One particularly challenging area of work for teachers is special
needs education. There are many who want to work in that field,
but in Essex our special needs schools are unfortunately already
full to bursting. That is why, today, I am launching a campaign
for a new special needs school in south Essex. I met the Minister
for Schools, my right hon. Friend the Member for Bognor Regis and
Littlehampton () in advance and he was very
helpful. Will the Secretary of State and the Schools Minister
work with me and Essex County Council to try to get us the
additional special needs places in Essex that parents and special
needs children so desperately need?
I absolutely agree with my right hon. Friend. This is something
we have already announced: we will invest £2.6 billion in
building more special schools. We are getting another one in
Sussex and many hon. Members are getting more special educational
needs schools in their areas. We would be very happy to work with
him and Essex County Council to ensure the right provision in
Essex for all children who have additional needs.
Dame (Basingstoke) (Con)
I pay tribute to all the staff and teachers at my local FE
college, Basingstoke College of Technology for all the work they
do to ensure that young people in my constituency are ready for
work. The reform of BTECs is causing some uncertainty when it
comes to staffing for the future in the college. Will my right
hon. Friend join me and headteacher Anthony Bravo for a meeting
to discuss those concerns, so that we can continue to ensure that
the young people of Basingstoke are work-ready in large
numbers?
Yes, I am always happy to meet my right hon. Friend and her
college. I have had many meetings on this subject. We are focused
on ensuring that high quality T-levels are introduced across the
country in all colleges, so that young people can access them. We
are also looking, side by side, to see what BTEC qualifications
will sit alongside A-levels as part of our level 3 offer.
Foster Care Placements
(Halesowen and Rowley Regis)
(Con)
11. What steps her Department is taking to help increase the
number of foster care placements.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education ()
We know that we need more foster carers. That is a really
important part of our plan, “Stable Homes, Built on Love”, to
reform the care system. We are investing £27 million in
recruitment and retention over the next two years. We have also
increased the national minimum allowance for foster parents by
12.4% as part of those plans.
Does my hon. Friend agree that foster carers can play a vital
role in improving the health and wellbeing of a looked-after
child, and that we need to encourage more people to go into
foster caring by removing unnecessary bureaucratic barriers so
that we can build a network of foster carers across the country
to improve the life chances of children in care?
This is a big priority for me. Some children end up in children’s
homes when they should have ended up with foster carers, so we
need to recruit more. As I have said, we are making a significant
investment in recruitment and retention so that we can keep some
of our brilliant, experienced foster carers as well as attracting
more into the system.
Reading Standards: Primary-age Children
(Hastings and Rye)
(Con)
13. What steps her Department is taking to improve standards of
reading of primary age children.
The Minister for Schools ()
The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study was
published in May this year. England had come fourth among 43
countries that tested children of the same age, nine and
10-year-olds. In 2012 we introduced the phonics screening check,
testing six-year-olds for their progress in reading and phonics.
In that year, 58% of pupils reached the expected standard; by
2019, just before the pandemic, the proportion had risen to 82%
following a transformation in the teaching of phonics in nearly
all primary schools.
Will my right hon. Friend join me in thanking the National
Literacy Trust and Bloomsbury Publishing for including a number
of schools in Hastings and St Leonards in their pioneering new
reading programme, which is specifically aimed at persuading more
children to read for pleasure, and will he encourage parents and
carers to engage in a programme that is a vital part of their
children’s development?
I recently met Jonathan Douglas of the National Literacy Trust,
and I thank the trust for its enormous contribution to raising
the profile of reading for pleasure in schools. Its new
programme—which, as my hon. Friend said, it launched in
partnership with Bloomsbury—involves working with seven Brighton
Academies Trust schools throughout Hastings to encourage more
children to read for pleasure.
Mr Speaker
I call the shadow Minister.
(Portsmouth South) (Lab)
In its White Paper for schools, published last year, the
Government’s headline ambition was for 90% of pupils leaving
primary school to meet the expected standards in reading, writing
and maths. Why does the Minister think that, since that pledge,
tens of thousands more children have been leaving primary school
without meeting those standards?
As the hon. Gentleman will know, owing to the pandemic we did see
a fall in writing and maths standards. Reading standards rose,
and then fell by two points this year. However, reading standards
today are broadly similar to those before the pandemic, and since
2010 both reading and maths have improved enormously in primary
schools throughout the country. I am confident that we will meet
the 90% target by 2030.
Mr Speaker
I call the Scottish National party spokesperson.
(North Ayrshire and Arran)
(SNP)
We cannot talk about attainment at any level without also taking
into account child poverty. The link between undernourishment and
lower reading standards and, therefore, attainment across the
board is irrefutable. When children are hungry, they cannot focus
on learning. The Scottish Government are currently rolling out
free school meals for all primary school children. When will the
Minister take decisive steps to combat child poverty and emulate
the actions of the Scottish Government?
Under this Government, the number of children receiving free
school meals has increased hugely. About a third of children are
now eligible for either benefits-related free school meals or the
universal infant free school meals introduced by our 2010
Government. However, the hon. Lady should be careful when talking
about reading and education standards, because standards in this
country have risen significantly, and I am not sure that the same
can be said for Scotland.
Local Secondary School Provision: Sittingbourne and
Sheppey
(Sittingbourne and
Sheppey) (Con)
14. Whether her Department is taking steps to ensure that
secondary age children in Sittingbourne and Sheppey constituency
are able to attend a local school.
The Minister for Schools ()
My hon. Friend and I have discussed education provision on the
Isle of Sheppey many times over the years. Given the inadequate
Ofsted grading for Oasis Academy Isle of Sheppey, the school is
now being removed from the Oasis Community Learning trust to a
strong multi-academy trust.
I welcome that response from my very right hon. Friend.
Currently, 1,000 children a day are bussed from the Isle of
Sheppey to Sittingbourne schools because parents do not want to
send their children to the Isle of Sheppey academy, which means
that all Sittingbourne secondary schools are over-subscribed and
many children in the town cannot get into their local schools. As
my right hon. Friend said, the Department is in the process of
transferring the academy to a new multi-academy trust, but with
the end of the summer term fast approaching, island parents have
no idea whether that transfer will happen, or, if it does, what
form it will take. As my right hon. Friend knows, I have been
working with the Department on secondary education problems on
the Isle of Sheppey for many years, and I know that officials are
doing their best, but what can he do to speed up the process and
end the current uncertainties?
I pay tribute to my very hon. Friend for his passion for
improving standards in schools in his constituency. The transfer
of the Isle of Sheppey academy to a new multi-academy trust is a
priority for the Department. A strong preferred sponsor has been
found, and a proposal is being developed by them. Once those
plans are completed, they will be put to parents before a final
decision is taken by the trust and the Department on the academy
transfer.
Student Visa Eligibility: Impact on Higher Education
Sector
(Edinburgh South West)
(SNP)
15. What recent discussions she has had with the Secretary of
State for the Home Department on the potential impact of changes
to the eligibility criteria for student visas on the
competitiveness of the higher education sector.
The Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education
()
As part of our commitment to have at least 600,000 students study
in the UK every year, we have worked closely with the Home Office
to strike the right balance between acting decisively on
migration, being fair to the taxpayer and protecting our position
as a world leader in higher education. We fully expect Britain to
remain an attractive destination for students across the
world.
I thank the Minister for his answer. My constituency of Edinburgh
South West is home to two leading universities: Heriot-Watt and
Edinburgh Napier. Research by Universities UK shows that the
constituency’s net economic benefit from international students
is £170.8 million. The Government plan to massage the net
migration figures by making the UK less attractive to
international students. That is going to harm the economy in my
constituency, Scotland’s economy and our educational
institutions. Can the Minister tell me: is that an example of the
Union delivering for Scotland?
I am not quite sure what problem the hon. and learned Lady is
trying to solve. I mentioned to her that our target was 600,000
international students; we have surpassed that—679,000
international students are coming to our country, which is
something we are proud of. But as I said, we have to be fair to
not only international students and universities but the
taxpayer, who bears the cost of the infrastructure. But I agree
with the hon. and learned Lady that international students have a
huge impact on the economy, of up to £37 billion-plus.
(The Cotswolds)
(Con)
Time after time, we find that every Government Department is
short of young graduates with digital skills. Will my right hon.
Friend think about making an application to the Home Office to
encourage more visas to be granted to students who want to take
digital degrees in this country?
My hon. Friend is learned in these matters, but they are for the
Home Office. We are developing our digital skills at home with
amazing digital apprenticeships. Half of our 670 apprenticeship
standards are in STEM subjects, and there are T-levels and higher
technical qualifications in digital. We are spending on the
digital skills that our local people need. We have to give them
the skills they need as well.
Institutional Partnerships: Further and Higher
Education
(Leeds North West)
(Lab/Co-op)
16. What steps she is taking to increase partnerships between
further education colleges and higher education institutions to
help increase learning opportunities.
The Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education
()
We are transforming tertiary education by building state of the
art prestigious institute of technology colleges, backed by £300
million and led by further education and higher education
businesses. We have also introduced the lifelong loan
entitlement—it is in the House of Lords at the moment. That will
allow higher and further education to collaborate, offering short
courses and the transfer of courses between FE and HE
institutions.
Last week, I met representatives of the National Farmers Union at
the Great Yorkshire Show. We discussed the great need for new
skills and a skilled workforce in areas such as agro-ecology.
What work is his Department doing to link specialist agricultural
colleges with the non-specialist FE and HE sector?
The hon. Gentleman makes an important point. We have good land
colleges and we are doing everything we can to support them.
There are two institute of technology colleges in Yorkshire,
although not in his area. I am sure that he will be pleased with
the investment of £88 million in his area into FE, sixth form and
the university technical college, as well as a grammar school. We
are doing a lot of work on agricultural T-levels as well.
(Bexleyheath and Crayford)
(Con)
What steps is my right hon. Friend taking to work with employers,
local authorities and jobcentres to ensure that as many adults as
possible are aware of the opportunities available to them to
learn and upskill?
My right hon. Friend speaks with huge wisdom. We are transforming
careers advice through the National Careers Service, which is
advising people on adult skills. We are spending hundreds of
millions of pounds on boot camps and on more than 400 free level
3 courses. Our apprenticeship scheme offers hundreds of different
apprenticeships. Through careers advice and our skills offer, we
are ensuring that adults get the skills they need.
(West
Dunbartonshire) (SNP)
As a working-class kid from the constituency I now represent, I
am not sure where I would be today if not for the opportunity I
had to study for a so-called “Mickey Mouse degree” at university.
After today’s media push and the Government’s apparent crackdown
on students, how does the Minister expect us to believe that this
is not just a ruse to protect the privileges of the Timothies and
Tabithas of the home counties, as opposed to working-class
kids?
The hon. Gentleman could not be more wrong. Why is it right to
send somebody to a higher education institution, taking out a
significant loan of £9,250 each year, to take a course that leads
either to poor completion, poor continuation or poor progression?
This Government are stopping that by imposing recruitment caps on
such courses. I am proud that record numbers of disadvantaged
students are going to university. More disadvantaged students are
going to university than ever before.
(Stoke-on-Trent North)
(Con)
Parents and pupils across Stoke-on-Trent North, Kidsgrove and
Talke wait anxiously to find out the result of the fantastic bid
made by the further education City of Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form
College and the higher education Staffordshire University for a
free school to unleash the digital skills, in particular, that we
want to see in Stoke-on-Trent. Will my right hon. Friend lobby
the Schools Minister and the Secretary of State not only to make
sure this is announced soon, but to make sure it is delivered
quickly so that we get the school places we so desperately
need?
I was very pleased to visit Staffordshire University, which is a
model university that offers a brilliant policing degree
apprenticeship scheme, among others. The Secretary of State is
listening carefully to the bid, and I am sure she will make the
announcement shortly.
Mr Speaker
I call the shadow Minister.
(Warwick and Leamington)
(Lab)
The introduction of the lifelong loan entitlement, which we all
support, will inevitably require greater collaboration between
higher education and further education providers, but under the
current regulatory system, as the lines between HE and FE blur,
we are seeing significant regulatory duplication and increased
burden. This acts as a brake on partnership. Does the Minister
not recognise the need to streamline the regulatory system to
foster collaboration ahead of, rather than after, the
introduction of the LLE?
The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right that the lifelong loan
entitlement of up to £37,000 will be transformative for millions
of people across the country, enabling them to take short or
modular courses at a time of their choosing. We are looking at
regulation across the higher education and further education
sector, and we are doing all we can to reduce it, but I recognise
some of the issues he raises.
Tuition Fees: Social Mobility
John Mc Nally (Falkirk) (SNP)
17. What assessment her Department has made of the potential
impact of tuition fees on the social mobility of young
people.
The Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education
()
The introduction of tuition fees has not led to fewer
disadvantaged young people going into higher education. As I have
already highlighted, the 18-year-old entry rate for disadvantaged
students in England increased from 14.4% in 2011 to 25.1% in
2022. We saw record numbers of disadvantaged students going into
higher education in 2022, with the rate for students on free
school meals going up from 20% to 30%.
John Mc Nally
I thank the Minister for that answer but, in the last academic
year, English students graduated with £30,000 more debt, on
average, than their Scottish counterparts. Despite this, both the
Government and the Labour party refuse to follow the Scottish
Government’s lead by abolishing tuition fees in England. With
more than 16,000 undergraduates dropping out of higher education
this year, will this Government admit that their policies are
pushing students into debt, and often out of university?
Actually, we are being fair both to students and to all those
taxpayers who do not go to university. I might point out that
low-income students living away from home will qualify for more
living cost support over the coming year than low-income students
in Scotland.
(Penistone and Stocksbridge)
(Con)
The new Labour dream of 50% of young people going to university
has left many saddled with debt, a third of graduates unable to
find graduate jobs and more than half of graduates never earning
enough to repay their student loans, so I warmly welcome the
Prime Minister’s announcement today of a reduction in the number
of low-value degrees, which benefit neither students nor
taxpayers. Will the Department look to go further by identifying
whole universities that could be transformed into higher
technical and vocational institutions, which would give far more
young people the opportunities and training they really need for
the productive jobs of the future?
My hon. Friend is absolutely right, in the sense that the Labour
party was all about quantity over quality, and we are about
quality, high standards and a good education. We are already
doing a lot of what she wants, because we are introducing
institutes of technology, which are collaborations between higher
education and further education that provide flagship skills and
teach higher technical qualifications, with 21 across the
country. They are doing exactly what she wants us to do.
Topical Questions
(Caithness, Sutherland and
Easter Ross) (LD)
T1. If she will make a statement on her departmental
responsibilities.
The Secretary of State for Education ()
This week, I have accepted the independent review body’s
recommendation in full, so our fantastic teachers will receive
their highest pay award for 30 years—it will be at least 6.5%.
From September, we will have delivered on our manifesto
commitment by raising teachers’ starting salaries to £30,000. To
support our school leaders, we are providing an extra £525
million this year and a further £900 million in 2024-25. This is
not just about schools, because we will also be investing £185
million and £285 million in our further education colleges over
the same period. All four unions have recommended the pay award,
and it is fully funded. I hope that teachers will join them, so
that we can bring an end to strike action and get our teachers
doing what they do best: teaching the next generation.
UK students who have been offered opportunities to study abroad
are waiting for funding decisions under the Turing scheme.
Clearly, for students from less well-off families this is tough,
as visas and accommodation have to be paid in advance. Will the
Secretary of State, out of the kindness of her heart and to a man
from the highlands, give a commitment to bring forward these
decisions next year, to make the Turing scheme more accessible to
all students, regardless of their background?
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question. The Turing scheme is
a great success. Disadvantaged students will take up two thirds
of the international study and work opportunities from September,
with students going to 160 different countries. It is a
remarkable scheme, given that it has been introduced so quickly.
It is a new demand-led scheme, but I will work with the sector to
make improvements to it and make sure that people are funded in
time.
(South East Cornwall)
(Con)
T3. I attended a meeting of the all-party parliamentary
group on fisheries, which I normally chair, where a keenness was
expressed to encourage young people to have an interest in a
career in fishing at the education stage. I have heard similar
pleas from farmers. What more can the Department do to make that
a reality?
The Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education
()
My hon. Friend is a true fisherman’s friend, although a lot
sweeter tasting than the lozenges, I might add. She will be
pleased to know that high-quality apprenticeship standards in
agriculture and a level 2 fisher apprenticeship are available. We
are promoting apprenticeships, including in agriculture, in our
schools, and through the apprenticeship support and knowledge
programme, and the Careers & Enterprise Company.
Mr Speaker
I call the shadow Secretary of State.
(Houghton and Sunderland
South) (Lab)
Ministers have known since last year that strike action by
teachers was likely, yet after months of refusing to talk, it was
only last week that the Secretary of State finally settled the
dispute. Will she take this opportunity to apologise to parents
for the completely needless and avoidable disruption to their
children’s education for which she is responsible?
Since I came into this job at the end of October, the unions
asked for an extra £2 billion and I delivered it; families asked
for childcare and I delivered it; the School Teachers Review Body
asked for 6.5% for teachers and I delivered it; and that had to
be funded, and I have delivered it. I have worked to deliver
every day in this job, whereas the hon. Lady cannot even decide
whether she will accept 6.5% or not.
Last week, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said that ending
private schools’ tax breaks will raise up to £1.5 billion in
additional revenue, confirming that Labour’s plans are fiscally
credible. We would use that money to invest in 6,500 new expert
teachers and better mental health support for all our young
people. Will the Secretary of State distance herself from the
discredited claim of the private schools’ lobby, do the right
thing and adopt Labour’s plan to drive up standards in our
schools?
Labour has never driven up a standard in our schools. Most of our
private schools are nothing like Eton or Harrow; they are far
smaller and they charge a lot less. Many cost the same as a
family holiday abroad, and there are plenty of parents who choose
to forgo life’s luxuries to give their children those
opportunities. The IFS also said:
“The effect might be larger over the medium to long run… There is
still lots of uncertainty around these estimates.”
Labour’s tax hikes are nothing more than the politics of envy. As
Margaret Thatcher once said:
“The spirit of envy can destroy; it can never build.”
(Warrington South) (Con)
T4. Will the Minister update my constituents on the
progress being made towards opening a new free school in
Warrington, to provide better and more appropriate education for
young people with autism and other special educational needs?
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education ()
We recently changed the location of the Warrington free school
from the Bruche Primary School to a better suited site at
Padgate, with the agreement of the local authority and the trust.
We are now working with all parties to begin design preparation
work and the school is on track to open in September 2025.
Mr Speaker
I call the spokesperson for the Scottish National party.
(North Ayrshire and Arran)
(SNP)
Today, headteachers in England have spoken of an unprecedented
struggle to recruit teachers, because teachers in England feel
undervalued and underpaid. To combat this, when will the UK
Government match the offer made by the Scottish Government, which
will see most Scottish teachers’ pay rise by 14.6% by January
2024, delivering a starting salary of £39,000, which is much more
than the £30,000 that the Secretary of State has boasted about
today for teachers in England?
The Minister for Schools ()
In England, standards are rising. We have a record number of
teachers in our profession: 468,000 teachers, which is some
27,000 more than in 2010. We value education in this country,
standards are rising and they will continue to rise, provided we
have a Conservative Government.
(East Devon) (Con)
T5. I was pleased to welcome Department for Education officials
to Tipton St John Primary School in my constituency of East Devon
recently. Thanks to the Department, the school has the funding it
needs and now has priority status in the school rebuilding
programme. That is thanks to the Conservative Government. Will my
right hon. Friend meet me to discuss the project’s great progress
so far?
I would be delighted to meet my hon. Friend. Progress is being
made in identifying and securing a site on which to relocate the
school. Officials continue to work with Devon County Council and
the diocese of Exeter. I thank my hon. Friend for his support in
progressing the discussions. The next step is for site appraisals
to take place on potential new locations, and officials will
continue to keep my hon. Friend informed.
(Birmingham, Hall Green)
(Lab)
T2. A record 40,000 teachers in England resigned last year;
teacher vacancies have doubled in the last two years; and
agencies and underfunded training programmes are struggling to
send qualified teachers to schools. Amy Lassman, the headteacher
of Nelson Mandela Primary School, an outstanding primary school
in my constituency, tells me that that is affecting students the
most, with many failing their classes. Will Ministers tell us
what they intend to do to narrow the attainment gap and raise
standards, when we have fewer and fewer teachers?
We continue to raise standards in our schools, as the hon.
Gentleman will know. He should not talk down the profession. This
is an exciting time to join teaching. It is an honour to be able
to work with children and to shape the next generation. This
year, 47,000 people came into teaching, a number that is broadly
similar year on year, because this is a good profession to join
and there is a Government that will support the teaching
profession.
(Crawley) (Con)
T7. I thank my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for
Education for visiting the Busy Bees nursery in my constituency
of Crawley earlier this month, and for the £204 million of
investment that the Government are putting into childcare
providers. Does that not demonstrate that the Conservative
Government are now delivering for working parents?
I know that my hon. Friend has done a lot of work in this sector.
It was wonderful to visit Busy Bees and the fantastic team who
work there. As well as the £204 million increase for providers,
we have announced a £289 million investment to develop our
universal wraparound childcare offer. We are the party of working
parents. Labour has flip-flopped repeatedly on childcare,
announcing vague policies in the autumn, which it quickly
backtracked on. Its new plan, which I hear is to be means-tested,
would snatch away childcare from thousands of hard-working
parents. We are rolling out the largest investment in childcare
in our history; Labour cannot even keep to its word.
Mr Speaker
I say gently to the Secretary of State that I was very generous
at the beginning, but that does not carry on all the way through
topicals. I want you to set a good example in this school
classroom.
(City of Chester) (Lab)
T6. What steps is the Secretary of State taking to improve
the development of children’s early speech and language skills,
especially in schools such as the wonderful Chester Blue Coat
Primary School where 39 languages are spoken?
I thank the hon. Lady for that question. This is really
important. We are trying to make sure that all staff in early
years settings are better equipped. We will be setting out a
practice guide specifically on early years speech and language,
as well as working with the NHS on better diagnostics.
(Colne Valley) (Con)
T8. Labour-run Kirklees Council has been sitting on millions of
pounds of unspent section 106 infrastructure payments, much of
which has been allocated for local schools. In the meantime, I
have a local school that has a leaky roof. It is impairing the
teachers’ ability to teach the children. May I please ask the
Minister what is happening with the latest round of condition
improvement funding to help with school repairs?
I welcome my hon. Friend’s question. We have spent £15 billion
since 2015 on repairs and maintenance of our school estate. We
intend to announce any successful appeals from the latest
condition improvement fund round this month, as CIF typically
opens for applications each autumn. Eligible schools with an
urgent condition need that cannot wait until the next round may
of course apply for the urgent capital support.
(York Central)
(Lab/Co-op)
T9. The mental wellbeing of young people and children is
really important. Last week, I met staff from Ebor Academy Trust
and our mental health trust to talk about how better provision
can be put in place. Labour has committed to ensuring that we
have mental health professionals in our schools, but in this
school it was the teaching assistants providing most of the care.
How are we ensuring that teaching assistants are properly
rewarded?
Rates for teaching assistants are set by the local authority.
Teaching assistants are highly regarded by all of us. As the hon.
Lady says, they provide important pastoral care alongside the
mental health support that we are rolling out via the mental
health support teams.
(Weston-super-Mare) (Con)
T10. Higher education already publishes outcomes data, so
students choosing courses can compare what their chances of
employment and earning power will be for each course at each
college or university and make fully informed decisions. Does the
Minister accept that publishing outcomes for further education
alongside higher education not only shows students the best
courses and colleges, but puts FE and HE on an equal footing for
the first time and pushes those offering low-value FE and HE
qualifications to either shape up or close down?
I know that my hon. Friend is a champion of his brilliant Weston
College, which is an example of the greatness of our FE colleges.
He will be pleased to know that the DFE publishes outcomes data
on further education, which shows statistics on the employment,
earnings and learning outcomes of further education learners. We
are introducing a data dashboard, which is in the direction of
travel in which he wants to go.
(Weaver Vale) (Lab)
Despite statutory guidance to reduce the costs of school
uniforms, far too many schools are requiring four and up to five
branded items. What more will the Minister do to intervene to
ensure that schools abide by the law?
I thank the hon. Member for his private Member’s Bill that, with
the Government’s support, enabled us to put the guidance on a
statutory footing. About 61% of headteachers are aware of that
guidance and are taking action to implement it. If parents are
still concerned that the school uniform is too expensive, they
can raise it with the school and go through the school’s
complaints process.
(West Dorset) (Con)
In the absence of any Ofsted oversight or regulation of
multi-academy trusts, will my right hon. Friend tell me what
mechanism is in place for a school to escalate concerns over the
pooling of pupil grant funding, especially in a situation where a
multi-academy trust gives a school considerably less money than
the Education and Skills Funding Agency allowance for that
school?
Academy trusts can pool their general annual grant to deliver key
improvements and efficiencies across the academies in the trust.
The academy trust handbook requires consideration of each
school’s needs and an appeals mechanism, which can be escalated
to the ESFA.
(Edinburgh West) (LD)
In my constituency of Edinburgh West this week, students are
graduating, some of them with unclassified results, because of a
dispute involving marking. This is making it difficult for those
wishing to do masters or PhDs, particularly foreign students who
have been told that they will have to reapply for visas. Are the
Department for Education and the Home Office looking at ways of
facilitating those students taking up the places that they have
been offered without the classification and avoiding that problem
with the visas?
UK Visas and Immigration will consider exercising discretion, and
will hold graduate route applications made before the applicant
results have been received, provided that the results are
received within eight weeks of the application being made.
Students who do not know when they will receive their results due
to the boycott will be able to extend their permission while they
wait for their results. They will be exceptionally exempt from
meeting academic progression requirements. I will write to the
hon. Lady with fuller details.
(Ipswich) (Con)
Recently I visited Rushmere Hall Primary School in Ipswich, which
is doing a fantastic job to support all neurodiverse pupils,
particularly dyslexic pupils; however, its head spoke of a need
for all regular teachers to have a better base understanding of
neurodiversity, not just new specialists. In the special
educational needs and disabilities improvement plan, the
Government committed to that. I would like an update on how far
we are getting with delivering that in practice.
I thank my hon. Friend, who I know is an amazing campaigner on
this issue. We are doing a lot to progress the support in
schools, making sure that we have access to a specialist
workforce and that teachers have proper training. We will set out
a best practice guide on autism specifically, for which we have
seen a big rise in need.
(Dunfermline and West
Fife) (SNP)
The price of school meals has increased by more than a third in
some parts of the UK, yet the Government, and indeed the Labour
Front Benchers, will not commit to universal free school meals
for primary school-age children. The Scottish Government are
rolling out free school meals across all primary schools. The
question is when this Government will take the lead from the
Scottish Government and act decisively to help struggling
families.
Record numbers of pupils in England are now eligible for a free
school meal. Under universal infant free school meals, all infant
pupils get a free meal. A third of children in our schools are
receiving a free school meal. We believe very strongly, however,
that we should focus the funding on the children in the greatest
need. We keep the issue under review, but our focus is always on
the most disadvantaged.
(Meon Valley) (Con)
My hon. Friend the Member for Worcester (Mr Walker), the Chair of
the Education Committee, mentioned my Children Not in School
(Register) Bill, which passed its First Reading with support from
colleagues across all parties and both Houses. The Schools
Minister himself said before the Select Committee last month:
“It is important that we know where children are and can make
sure that they are safe.”
Therefore, is it not critical that the Government work with me to
expedite the Bill, as an existing and ongoing legislation vehicle
that the Government can use without any further delay?
As I have pointed out, we do intend to legislate for the children
not in school measures and put attendance on a statutory footing
when the legislative timetable allows, looking at the sitting
Fridays that are left within this period. The Department is
currently running a call for evidence on improving the support
for children missing from education, and that evidence will be
used to inform future policy.
(North West Leicestershire)
(Reclaim)
Does the Secretary of State think that something might be going
seriously wrong when children in our junior schools are being
indoctrinated by gender ideology at the same time as senior
Members of this House appear unable to define what a woman
is?
I can assure my hon. Friend that I am more than capable of
defining what a woman is. It is true that some schools are asking
for guidance in this area, so we intend to bring forward
guidance. I am working with my right hon. Friend the Equalities
Minister to bring that forward in the near term.
(Meriden) (Con)
Last week, 14 officers from West Midlands police were recognised
at the Police Bravery Awards for forming a human chain and
breaking through the ice as Fin, Tom, Jack and Sam fell through
in sub-zero temperatures at Babbs Mill lake in Kingshurst. I
thank the Minister for his time on this previously. What progress
has been made in revising the relationships, health and sex
education curriculum guidelines specifically on understanding the
implications of cold water shock on the body?
What happened to my hon. Friend’s constituents is tragic.
Swimming and water safety are in the national curriculum, and the
Government are updating the school sport and activity action
plan, which will set out actions to help all pupils take part in
sport and keep fit, including swimming and water safety. The plan
will be published this year to align with the timing of the
Government’s new school sport strategy.
(Walsall South) (Lab)
The Secretary of State told the media at the weekend that she had
found the money for the pay settlement from an underspend in the
Department. Can she tell the House exactly where she found the
money and what policies have not been delivered?
I am delighted to. We have a constructive relationship with the
Treasury, whether on childcare, school funding or extra
budgeting, and in this particular case what we have done, as I
have done many times in my 30-year business career, is to go
through every line of the budget. We spend £100 billion on
education, so there are a lot of things in that budget, and we
have gone through it and checked every single assumption. Some
are demand led and some depend on the roll-out of certain
projects. We have protected the frontline and reprioritised; what
has changed is that the Treasury has allowed us to keep that
money to reprioritise—[Interruption.] It is an answer. The right
hon. Lady may not understand, because she does not—
Mr Speaker
Order. I am not sure the Secretary of State is understanding me,
either. When I say these are topicals, I mean
that—[Interruption.] Order. No, I am sorry; if you do not want
Members on your side of the House to get in, please say so,
because that is what is going to happen, and it is totally unfair
to the people who are waiting. Let us play by the rules—that is
what we expect from all of us.
(Harrogate and Knaresborough)
(Con)
I recently visited the impressive National STEM Learning Centre
in York and was fortunate enough to be able to observe some of
its work. I would be delighted if my right hon. Friend could
visit, but in the interim, can she detail what professional
support is available for teachers in their continuing
professional development?
We have engaged in an extensive reform of teacher training,
introducing what we call the golden thread: a higher level of
requirements in initial teacher training and a two-year early
career framework for teachers just starting off in their career.
Those standards will mean that in science, technology,
engineering and mathematics, and in all subjects, teachers are
better prepared to enter the profession.
(Twickenham) (LD)
The chairs of the governing bodies of 19 primary and secondary
schools across the London Boroughs of Richmond and Kingston upon
Thames have today written to the Education Secretary, requesting
an urgent meeting to discuss the crippling funding and
recruitment challenges they face. Will she agree to meet
them?
Of course the Secretary of State will agree, as she has just said
to me. We are spending record amounts of funding on schools. The
Secretary of State achieved an extra £2 billion in the autumn
statement last year and we are now spending £59.6 billion on
school funding. We have recruited 2,800 more teachers this year
than last year and we have a record number of teachers in the
profession, at 468,000, but of course I am happy to talk to the
hon. Lady and the teachers in her constituency to discuss their
particular concerns.
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