Arts Courses: Funding Reductions Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne
Central) (Lab) 1. What recent assessment he has made of the
potential impact of reductions in funding for arts courses in
higher education on the provision of those courses. The Secretary
of State for Education (Nadhim Zahawi) We value excellent provision
in all subjects, including the arts. We recently rationalised the
strategic priorities grant to better meet the funding needs of
high-cost,...Request free trial
Arts Courses: Funding Reductions
(Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)
1. What recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of
reductions in funding for arts courses in higher education on the
provision of those courses.
The Secretary of State for Education ()
We value excellent provision in all subjects, including the arts.
We recently rationalised the strategic priorities grant to better
meet the funding needs of high-cost, strategically important
subjects, including in science, technology, engineering and
maths.
I know that the Secretary of State studied engineering, and as a
chartered engineer myself, I believe it is essential to invest in
STEM skills. However, doing so at the expense of arts subjects
shows that the Government really are not serious about our future
economy. How will he ensure that our £111 billion creative
industries have the skills and people they need when he is
cutting in half the subsidy for arts subjects? Is he aware that
only a fifth of our artists, performers and so on are from
working-class backgrounds as it is?
I am grateful to the hon. Lady for mentioning my engineering
background. As part of the same reform programme, we have asked
the Office for Students to invest an additional £10 million in
our world-leading specialist providers, many of which specialise
in arts provision. On providers losing funding in the
reallocation as we send a clear message on STEM, I remind her
that that income loss amounts to about 0.05% of those providers’
estimated total income.
(Lichfield) (Con)
Does my right hon. Friend accept that arts subjects do not
necessarily lead to arts careers? Does he know, for example, an
honourable gentleman who, after doing a philosophy, politics and
economics degree at Oxford, became a shopkeeper and now happens
to be the Mayor of the West Midlands?
Indeed I do, and he is a great Mayor who is transforming the city
of Birmingham and the rest of the west midlands. My hon. Friend
is right to remind the House that subjects such as PPE are
incredibly important and that many leaders in industry do not
necessarily have STEM degrees.
(Warwick and Leamington)
(Lab)
I welcome the Secretary of State to his place. As a neighbour,
and possibly a friend, it is good to see him here.
This nation has long produced some of the best creatives in the
world—in fact, the arts are a powerhouse for the country’s
economy—yet the Government have a myopic view on the value of
everything. Their present focus is that ballerinas should be
coders, but for decades people from low-income households in
particular have not just benefited from their discovery and study
of the arts but gone on to enrich this country of ours and, at
the same time, generated soft power. I think of people such as
Danny Boyle, Tracey Emin, Annie Lennox, David Bowie and Alison
Lapper—the list is endless. People’s lives are infused with the
arts as they listen to music on their iPods, read fiction, attend
museums and watch TV dramas, dance and so on. Given that the UK
creative industries are truly global-leading and make such a
significant contribution to our economy, why are the Government
so determined to limit people’s social mobility and our wider
economic success?
I am grateful to my hon. Friend—I think he is—for his question,
although I completely disagree with him. Nevertheless, it is
important to remember that the arts play an incredible role in
enriching minds, especially young minds, and in inward investment
to the United Kingdom and exports from the UK. We continue to
value high-quality provision in a range of subjects critical to
our workforce, including the arts. That is why I mentioned the
work of the Office for Students in reinvesting an additional £10
million in our world-leading specialist providers, many of which
specialise in arts provision.
Covid-19 Management in Schools
(Bosworth) (Con)
2. What steps he is taking to support schools with the cost of
managing covid-19.
The Secretary of State for Education ()
Teachers and school leaders have made a huge contribution to the
nation’s efforts, and we are grateful for their hard work.
Schools continue to receive core funding throughout the pandemic,
regardless of any periods of reduced attendance. The 2021
spending review has confirmed significant funding increases, with
a cash increase for schools averaging £1,500 per pupil by
2024-25.
Dr Evans
I welcome the Secretary of State’s answer. I have met heads at
Bosworth Academy in Desford and Hastings High School in Burbage,
who welcome the funding they have had throughout covid but are
concerned about what could happen to staffing budgets in
particular because of absenteeism through covid. Does the
Secretary of State have a plan to deal with that, and will he
meet me to hear their concerns so that we can work out a
solution?
Of course I will meet my hon. Friend. We recognise that some
schools are concerned about pressures and have made available a
range of school resources and management tools to help them get
best value from their resources. I just remind the House that the
increase of £1,500 per pupil by 2024-25 is compared with
2019-20.
(Birmingham, Erdington)
(Lab)
England’s near 400 maintained nursery schools were not eligible
for exceptional costs funding, and they therefore had to bear the
burden of covid themselves. The Government’s announcement last
week of the continuation of supplementary funding for three years
is a welcome step in the right direction, but will the Secretary
of State confirm that it will cover inflationary pressures and
the national living wage increase? Will he meet the hon. Member
for Bury North (), me and the other officers of
the all-party parliamentary group on nursery schools, nursery and
reception classes to ensure that those outstanding centres of
excellence in some of the most deprived communities in the
country get the funding that they deserve?
The hon. Member will recall that when I was Minister for Children
and Families, I met the all-party parliamentary group, an
incredibly important group, which I know that the Under-Secretary
of State for Education, my hon. Friend the Member for Colchester
(), the current Children and
Families Minister, will continue to engage with. We have
confirmed that continuation of supplementary funding for
maintained nurseries through the spending review period, which
provides the sector with long-term clarity. I am happy to meet
the hon. Member and the APPG to go through the details.
(Harlow) (Con)
I strongly welcome my right hon. Friend to his place and thank
him for the big Budget increases in education, particularly the
42% increase in cash terms for skills.
Will my right hon. Friend continue to make the case for a longer
school day? We know from the Education Policy Institute that it
increases educational attainment by two to three months,
especially among disadvantaged pupils. According to the
Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, a longer school
day increases numeracy by 29%. Will my right hon. Friend at least
consider some pilot schemes in disadvantaged areas around the
country whereby we can have a longer school day?
I am grateful to the Chair of the Education Committee for his
question. The priority has to be those children and students who
have the least time available to recover. That is why the £800
million for 16 to 19-year-olds for an additional 40 hours of
education is so important, plus the £1 billion going into
secondary and primary, making a total of £5 billion of recovery
money. There are excellent examples in some multi-academy trusts
of a longer school day, which I will look at. The average school
day is now six and a half hours, and I would like to see
everybody moving towards that.
(Batley and Spen) (Lab)
The NHS covid recovery fund is an important measure to help
address the backlog of operations and patient care. Will the
Secretary of State set out, following any conversations between
the Department, the Treasury and the Department of Health of
Social Care, how much of that budget has been earmarked for
additional capacity for children with disability and care needs,
children and adolescent mental health services, and special
educational needs and disability provision, which is quickly
becoming a crisis in our schools?
The Under-Secretary of State for Education, my hon. Friend the
Member for Colchester, has been championing the additional £2.6
billion investment in SEND that we have received from the
Treasury. That includes money going into mainstream schools to
increase that provision. It is important, as we await the review
of SEND, that we make the investment now to create places so that
parents do not feel that they need to go to court with their
local authority to get an education, health and care plan.
(Chipping Barnet)
(Con)
May I press my right hon. Friend on the issue of maintained
nursery schools? Of course, I welcome the three years of
supplementary funding that has been confirmed, but those schools
are in severe financial distress, they have found it harder than
any other schools to cope with the cost of covid, and the schools
in my constituency do not quality for supplementary funding. When
are they going to get the help they need to survive?
I am grateful to my right hon. Friend, who was a doughty champion
of her maintained nurseries even in my time as Children and
Families Minister. I am happy to meet her to go through the
details that are specific to her schools, but the additional
funding has been welcomed by the maintained nursery sector.
(Hove) (Lab)
I welcome the Secretary of State to his post, and I welcome the
other Ministers who are new in post. Despite our political
differences, I hold them all in very high personal regard.
On 19 July, I put it to the Secretary of State, who was then
Vaccines Minister, that the only way to have stability in schools
come the autumn term and to protect the wellbeing of students
would be to offer the vaccine over the summer months. He chose
not to. As a result, just in recent days, I spoke to a principal
who said that schools are no longer primarily places of learning;
they are logistical centres, performing twice-weekly testing,
facilitating the vaccine roll-out and dealing with local covid
outbreaks. Instead of having a wall of protected adults, which
the Secretary of State told me would be the case, students are
faced with a wall of pinched and angry anti-vaxxers, who are
preventing them from getting into school by bullying and
harassing, and interrupting their school flow. Will he accept
Labour’s proposal for exclusion zones around schools for the
duration of any vaccine roll-out programme, and will he apologise
to the 200,000 students and their families who are currently off
school because he chose not to implement the measures that would
have kept them there?
I am grateful to the shadow Minister for his question and his
remarks about the team. I remind him that it was the Joint
Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation that initially did not
make the decision and then went further and asked the four chief
medical officers to make that decision. Throughout the
vaccination programme, we have operated by taking the advice of
the JCVI and of the chief medical officers. We moved swiftly the
moment the advice was made available to vaccinate 12 to
15-year-olds. Of course, through the holiday period, that was
expanded to out-of-school vaccination, and now that they are
returning to school, that continues at pace.
However, the shadow Minister is right to highlight the dangerous
behaviour of some anti-vaxxers. There is no place for
anti-vaxxers harassing or coming anywhere near school leaders,
and I have the reassurance of the Home Secretary that she will
make available any resources that the sector needs to ensure that
those people in our schools are protected and able to get on with
the job of teaching and protecting children.
Travel to School: Rural Communities
(Somerton and Frome)
(Con)
3. What steps his Department is taking to help ensure that
children in rural communities with limited public transport are
able to attend school.
The Minister for School Standards ( )
Local authorities must provide transport for children of
compulsory school age to attend their nearest school if they
cannot walk there because of distance, route safety or special
needs. During the next spending review period, authorities will
receive an extra £1.6 billion a year to maintain vital services
such as that.
I am grateful for my hon. Friend’s reply. As a former teacher, I
very much understand the value of education, but in the past few
months I have been concerned to hear of constituents having
difficulties getting children to school because of limited public
transport and school bus places. I know that my hon. Friend will
agree that it is vital to ensure that children do not miss out on
learning, so I would be grateful to hear what steps are being
taken to ensure that children in rural areas, particularly with
limited bus transport, are able to attend school, and whether he
has discussed this matter with colleagues in the Department for
Transport.
Mr Walker
I am grateful to my hon. Friend. As he says, as a former teacher,
he recognises the benefit of children being in schools. I can
assure him that the Department regularly talks to the Department
for Transport about school transport. Last year, we gave Somerset
over £1.1 million of additional funding for school and college
transport in response to the need for social distancing on public
transport. I shall continue those conversations.
(Cambridge) (Lab)
Of course, far too many children in rural areas end up getting
driven to school, but does the Minister agree that when they
finally arrive at their destination, they will be slightly
surprised to find that this Government’s ambition for funding is
just back at the level that they inherited from the last Labour
Government in 2010?
Mr Walker
I think the hon. Gentleman will find that funding levels are
considerably higher than they were in 2010. We were also
delighted to deliver real growth in funding over that period,
which many of us have long campaigned for.
Independent and State School Partnerships
(Bassetlaw) (Con)
4. What plans he has to help encourage partnerships between
independent and state schools in (a) Bassetlaw and (b)
England.
The Minister for School Standards ( )
The Government are committed to cross-sector partnerships across
England. We are aware of the partnership in Bassetlaw between
Worksop College, an independent school, and 11 local state
schools. We continue to work constructively with them to
encourage more schools to engage with such partnership
working.
I thank the Minister for his answer. He mentioned Worksop
College, an independent school in my constituency, which offers
chemistry roadshows for local state primary schools, hosts a
weekly parkrun for local junior school pupils and does a lot of
other community work. Does he agree that such independent/state
school partnerships can be a key part of educational recovery?
Does he welcome the forthcoming “Celebrating Partnerships” report
from the Independent Schools Council, and will he therefore
encourage all schools to get involved in cross-sector
partnerships?
Mr Walker
The short answer is that I will, and I welcome another question
from another former teacher on the Conservative Benches. Such
partnerships can form a key part of economic recovery, and I
welcome the forthcoming “Celebrating Partnerships” report. I am
very pleased to note that my noble Friend has written the foreword
for that important publication.
Lifelong Learning and Skills Development
(Darlington) (Con)
5. What steps his Department is taking to help promote lifelong
learning and skills development.
(East Surrey) (Con)
22. What steps his Department is taking to help promote lifelong
learning and skills development.
The Secretary of State for Education ()
As set out in the spending review, we are investing £3.8 billion
more in further education and skills over the Parliament as a
whole. We are supporting adults to get the skills that they need
through the adult education budget and delivering on the Prime
Minister’s lifetime skills guarantee.
I thank the Secretary of State for that answer and welcome him to
his place. Following last week’s phenomenal investment in
education catch-up, does he agree that the catch-up funds, along
with the new T-levels being offered at Darlington College,
part-funded through the towns fund, will be vital as we create
new high-skilled, high-wage technical jobs up and down the
country?
I thank my hon. Friend for his question. I am delighted that
Darlington College will offer T-levels in education and childcare
and in engineering and manufacturing from next year. If we can
make T-levels as famous as A-levels, Mr Speaker, you and I will
have done something really great by the end of this Parliament. I
am grateful for the efforts of Darlington College to help
learners to catch up with their education following the pandemic
by making good use of the 16 to 19 tuition fund, introduced in
2020.
About a third of my constituents in East Surrey do not have a
level 3 qualification, so I am hugely supportive of the Prime
Minister’s lifetime skills guarantee. I am also tremendously
lucky to have a brilliant further education college, East Surrey
College, to deliver it. Does the Secretary of State agree that
the success of that programme will rely on our ability to let
people know that it is available, and will he set out some steps
on how he is ensuring that the right people know so that we can
get the maximum uptake?
I am grateful for my hon. Friend’s question. We know that now
more than ever we need to invest in adult skills and training.
The lifetime skills guarantee gives adults in colleges just like
East Surrey College the opportunity to develop the skills to
succeed in work throughout life. I was the apprenticeships tsar
under the coalition Government, and if you had told me that a
Prime Minister would introduce this, I would have bitten your arm
off. We have to make this famous, and we can do that through the
work of everybody in this House taking the message out to their
constituents.
(York Central)
(Lab/Co-op)
But since 2010, funding for adult education has been slashed in
two and funding for further education has been cut by a third. Of
course, it was this Government who scrapped the union learning
fund, which was transformative in moving people into skills for
the future economy. Could the Secretary of State set out exactly
how he will invest in skills and what the skills strategy
priorities are, in the light of the fact that the Government seem
to be making demands for skills that they simply do not have in
the economy?
I am grateful to the hon. Lady. I can set out precisely how we
are taking this forward: we are investing £2.5 billion—if we take
the Barnett funding, it is £3 billion—in the national skills
fund. The Budget confirmed that further investment through the
national skills fund will reach just over half a billion
pounds—£554 million—by 2024-25. That will include extending the
eligibility for about 400 free level 3 courses to more adults and
further expanding skills boot camps. We will announce more
details in due course. On qualifications, the free courses for
jobs offer is another intervention in the economy, and the boot
camps are an incredibly successful intervention in the economy,
producing skills through heavy goods vehicles boot camps and
others. Strategically, it is about making T-levels,
apprenticeships and apprenticeship degrees absolutely equal to
A-levels and degrees from university.
(Kingston upon Hull West and
Hessle) (Lab)
Given that so many of the current labour shortages are in
so-called unskilled jobs such as HGV driving, in which the Road
Haulage Association tells me that there are more than 100,000
vacancies, why is so much funding for career retraining focused
on levels 3 and above? For example, the advanced learner loan is
available only for levels 3 and above, which means that a HGV
driver who wants to retrain has to self-fund.
As always, the hon. Lady makes an important contribution to the
debate. It is important to remember that we are focusing on
tactical interventions such as bootcamps and our current work on
kickstart, which has £2 billion, and restart, which has £2.9
billion. The strategic aim is that by the end of this Parliament
we ensure not only that T-levels are embedded and at scale, but
that apprenticeships continue the journey of quality that we
began when we introduced the new standards.
(Hereford and South
Herefordshire) (Con)
I welcome my right hon. Friend to his place; he has made a
brilliant start as Secretary of State. The emphasis that he is
placing on further education and skills is the very opposite of
myopia, if I may offer that observation to the House.
I am sure that my right hon. Friend is aware of the extraordinary
institution that is the New Model Institute for Technology and
Engineering in my constituency—a transformative model of higher
education and further education together, focused on skills, and
an extraordinary lift and shift model for levelling up. Does he
share my view that this is something that the Government should
be really leaning into and supporting for the longer term?
I certainly share my right hon. Friend’s priorities and ambition.
More importantly, if we can make this work, it truly is scalable
and can be a model for other parts of the country in our
levelling-up agenda.
(Bath) (LD)
I, too, welcome the new Secretary of State to his role. The
Protect Student Choice campaign warns that many students might
struggle to enrol on so large an occupation-specific
qualification as T-levels at the age of 16. By withdrawing
funding from BTECs, how will the Secretary of State guarantee
student choice?
I thank the hon. Lady for her question. I want to just squash
that misrepresentation: we are not withdrawing funding from
BTECs. BTECs that are of high quality and are valued will
continue, but it is only right that we look at the landscape and
see where quality lies and how we can increase the ladders of
opportunity, not take them away from people.
Food Standards in Schools
(South West Bedfordshire)
(Con)
6. What plans he has to introduce a mechanism to help enforce
food standards in schools.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education ()
We already have robust regulation in place around food standards
in schools, established by the Requirements for School Food
Regulations 2014. The regulations apply to all food provided in
schools, making compliance mandatory for all maintained schools,
including academies and free schools.
Children’s health is so important to their life chances, so the
research of the young people at Jamie Oliver’s Bite Back 2030
foundation is very concerning: it shows that school food
standards are routinely not maintained. What can we do to ensure
that they are upheld?
School governors have a responsibility to ensure compliance and
should appropriately challenge the headteacher and the senior
leadership team to ensure that the school is meeting its
obligations. Should parents feel that standards are not being met
at their child’s school, they can make a complaint using the
school’s own complaints procedure. My hon. Friend is a strong
advocate for healthy and nutritious school meals; I would be
happy to meet him to discuss the issue further.
Condition of School Buildings
(Keighley) (Con)
7. What steps his Department is taking to help improve the
condition of school buildings.
(Sleaford and North
Hykeham) (Con)
19. What steps his Department is taking to help improve the
condition of school buildings.
(East Devon) (Con)
23. What steps his Department is taking to help improve the
condition of school buildings.
The Minister for School Standards ( )
We have allocated £11.3 billion since 2015 to improve the
condition of schools, including £1.8 billion in this financial
year. Our new school rebuilding programme will transform 500
schools over the next decade. We expect to start the selection
process for the next round by early 2022.
Ilkley Grammar School in my constituency has a roof prone to
leaking, has internal damage and is in desperate need of repair.
Last year, the situation got worse, with the roof collapsing in a
small part of the school. Unfortunately, Ilkley Grammar School
has already had two bids to the condition improvement fund for a
roof replacement rejected. Following last week’s news of more
funding for schools, may I make an urgent plea to the Minister
that he consider granting funding for any future proposal that we
submit?
Mr Walker
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for bringing the case of Ilkley
Grammar School to my attention, which he has certainly done
effectively. The condition improvement fund prioritises
significant condition need, keeping buildings safe and in good
working order. It has supported more than 1,400 projects at more
than 1,200 schools and sixth forms during the current financial
year. Applications for the 2022-23 round will be assessed
according to the criteria that will be published shortly.
(Sleaford and North
Hykeham) (Con)
The lovely market town of Sleaford is growing—
(Harlow) (Con)
Thanks to you!
Dr Johnson
I’ve only got three kids. [Laughter.]
Anyway, the lovely market town of Sleaford is growing, which is
causing capacity issues for both the boys’ and the girls’ grammar
school sites, which are fairly constrained in the town centre.
Thanks to the bequest of a very generous lady, the school has
identified a site for a joint grammar school building. May I ask
my hon. Friend for his support and that of the Government as part
of the school rebuilding programme?
Mr Walker
I know that my hon. Friend has championed this issue, and indeed
has been visited by Ministers from the Department, including the
former Minister for the School System, . The school rebuilding
programme will be targeted at schools in the worst condition.
While I understand that there are merits in the proposed
relocation and merger, we must make hard decisions about how we
prioritise use of the Department’s budget, but of course I should
be happy to meet my hon. Friend and discuss this further.
(East Devon) (Con)
The grounds of Tipton St John Primary School in East Devon have
been flooded for the second time in a week. Previous flooding of
the school led the Environment Agency and the Department for
Education to warn of a risk to life. Earlier this year, plans to
move the school to Ottery St Mary were rejected by local
councillors. Will my hon. Friend please include flood risk in the
criteria for the next phase of the school rebuilding
programme?
Mr Walker
As one who represents a constituency where schools have been
flooded, I am sympathetic to the issues my hon. Friend has
raised. The Department is aware of the flood risk to the school,
and is working with the relevant parties to find a solution. We
have consulted on how to select schools for the next round of the
school rebuilding programme, and we are currently considering the
extent to which flood risk will be part of the selection
criteria, alongside other condition and safety concerns.
(Rutherglen and Hamilton
West) (Ind)
May I again call attention to a physical safety issue in schools
in England? Sprinklers are already mandatory in Scotland and
Wales. What recent assessment has the Secretary of State made of
the benefit of mandatory sprinkler systems in English school
buildings?
Mr Walker
This is certainly an issue which the Department keeps under
review, and I should be happy to speak to the hon. Lady about it
in more detail.
Higher Education: Learning Lost to Covid-19
(Sheffield Central)
(Lab)
9. What steps he is taking to support (a) universities and (b)
students in higher education to make up for learning experiences
lost as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
The Minister for Further and Higher Education ()
The teaching staff at our universities have done a fantastic job
in delivering high-quality teaching throughout the pandemic, but
I am sure everyone will agree that there is no substitute for
face-to-face teaching. Last week I wrote to all providers
emphasising the importance of face-to-face provision, not just in
teaching but in the rich extracurricular activities that should
be provided for students to ensure that they are given a fair
deal.
I welcome the Minister back to her role, and I agree with her
about the fantastic job that universities have done. However, the
Office for National Statistics reported recently that nearly 40%
of first-year students had shown symptoms of depression and
anxiety this autumn, and similar numbers felt unprepared for
university because of the loss of in-person learning during the
pandemic. What support is the Government giving stretched
universities to ensure that both new and continuing students
succeed despite the difficulties that they have faced, and will
the Minister take this opportunity to deny rumours that the
Government are planning to add to their worries by making
graduates on lower incomes pay more of their student debt, by
reducing the repayment threshold?
Throughout the pandemic we have prioritised the welfare and
wellbeing of students, and we will continue to do so. We will
respond to the Augar report shortly. As for the transition of
students to university, we have worked with universities on that.
We have held a session with more than 200 schools and higher
education providers, and published a guide to assist with the
transition. We have invested £15 million in mental health and
welfare support, and with our help £3 million has been provided
for Student Space by the Office for Students. It is this
Government who continue to support students.
(New Forest East) (Con)
The Minister is doing a first-rate job for students in promoting
freedom of speech on campus. Does she agree, however, that it
would not help students to recover from everything they have been
going through and everything they have lost during the pandemic
if they faced the prospect of having to pay back already
excessive student loans at a lower threshold? Does she also agree
that too many universities have become academically
indiscriminate cash cows for overpaid university
administrators?
In response to Augar, we will be reporting shortly. We want to
ensure that a more sustainable student finance system exists. We
want to drive up the quality of higher education provision,
ensure that courses meet the skills needs of this country,
maintain our world-class reputation and promote social
mobility.
(Glasgow North West)
(SNP)
I welcome the new Secretary of State and his team, who are also
new, with the exception of the Minister for Further and Higher
Education, the right hon. Member for Chippenham (), although I of course
welcome her as well as she returns to the Front Bench. I welcome
the entire team. She has quite rightly commended university staff
for the job that they have done over the past 20 months in
supporting students as they shifted their entire courses online,
but those same individuals are now facing severe cuts to their
retirement benefits—essentially a 35% cut to their pensions and
lump sums. Given the work that these staff have done over the
pandemic, what action is the Minister taking to ensure that this
brutal pension reduction will not go ahead?
I am deeply concerned about this issue, and that is because of
the threat of strikes. Our students are now in a position to have
face-to-face teaching, and I would urge every lecturer to
reconsider taking strike action. Strikes have not helped the
situation before, but they have impacted students who deserve a
fairer deal.
National Tutoring Programme
(Kingston upon Hull North)
(Lab)
10. What recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of
the national tutoring programme in improving the educational
attainment of pupils in the north of England.
The Secretary of State for Education ()
The national tutoring programme reached 308,000 pupils in 2020-21
and this year it is expanding further to offer high quality
tuition for up to 2 million pupils across the country.
I know that the Secretary of State is as concerned as I am about
children in my constituency reaching their full educational
potential, but I am concerned that only 240,000 enrolled on the
national tutoring programme in its first year, that it has only a
third of the funding that his own Government adviser put forward
for covid catch-up and that funding per pupil will not reach 2010
levels for another three years. Can we see some evidence that the
Government’s proposals are working? For example, can we see
granular information about how the national tutoring programme is
reaching the most disadvantaged children in our communities?
I am grateful to the right hon. Lady for her question. She is
always assiduous and follows the evidence. I am also grateful to
her for coming to the Department on another matter to do with
further education. The academic years independent evaluation is
taking place and will assess the programme’s impact on pupils’
educational attainment in all regions, including the north, and
we will of course publish that. I want to share with the House
some of the latest reported figures on the national tutoring
programme. It is going well in all parts of England, and
provisional figures from our delivery partners show that so far
this year 3,822 schools have engaged with the programme through
the tuition partners and academic mentors. The latest reports
show that 475 academic mentors have been placed in schools in the
most disadvantaged areas of England. On top of this, all schools
are sharing the £579 million to recruit their own local
tutors.
(North West Durham)
(Con)
I would like to thank the School Standards Minister for his
recent visit to Burnopfield Primary School in my constituency to
look specifically at the national tutoring programme. However, at
a recent headteacher cluster meeting, some of the smaller primary
school leaders were concerned at the amount of paperwork involved
in accessing the scheme. Will the Secretary of State look at the
amount of bureaucracy involved, to ensure that the national
tutoring programme can reach as many children as possible in
every school?
I give a great shout-out to Katie Vickers, the academic mentor
that my hon. Friend and the Minister for School Standards met at
Burnopfield Primary School. My hon. Friend will recall that when
I was vaccines Minister, I was able to cut through some of the
bureaucracy and get more retired doctors and nurses to come back
and vaccinate the nation. I will happily look again with the
Minister for School Standards at any bureaucracy that gets in the
way and we will get rid of it.
(Stretford and Urmston)
(Lab)
I welcome the Secretary of State to his post, and I congratulate
him and his new team on their appointment. By the end of the
national tutoring programme period, nearly 2 million young people
will have left school without support, including, it is
estimated, more than half a million in the north. Meanwhile, the
new cut-price Randstad contract has left schools facing
over-complicated bureaucracy and delayed tutoring—although
Randstad did manage to award a contract to itself. Is the
Secretary of State satisfied with the performance of Randstad’s
management of the contract?
I am never satisfied until we have delivered. Ultimately, we can
have an arms race about how much we can spend, but it is all
about outcomes. When the hon. Lady sees some of the independent
evaluation of the programme delivered by my predecessor, she will
see that we focus on outcomes, and that is what she should also
focus on.
Yes, but tutoring is reaching just one in 16 pupils this year,
and the attainment gap is 18 months at GCSE and widening. The
Government failed to use the opportunity of the Budget to deliver
the investment in education recovery that their own expert called
for. Why will the Secretary of State and the Prime Minister not
match Labour’s ambition for children’s futures?
All I would remind the hon. Lady is that, if we look at the
league tables, England is doing well under a Conservative
Government and will continue to do well. If she will only shed
the tribal politics and look at the evidence—as I will, and I
will present it to this House—then we can get somewhere with
delivering real outcomes for the most disadvantaged people in our
country, which I hope she cares about as I do.
Young-People: Securing High-Quality Jobs
(Blyth Valley) (Con)
12. What steps his Department is taking to help support young
people in securing high-quality jobs.
(North Warwickshire)
(Con)
13. What steps his Department is taking to help support young
people in securing high quality jobs.
The Minister for Further and Higher Education ()
I am proud to say that our plan for jobs is working, with
unemployment falling to 4.5% last month. Our £3.8 billion skills
revolution will ensure that young people have the skills they
need to access those jobs, with T-levels, with the largest-ever
expansion of traineeships and with an incentive of £3,000 for
employers hiring apprentices, creating new pathways for
high-quality employment.
Blyth Valley is currently at the forefront of the green
industrial revolution, with many fantastic businesses such as the
Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult in Blyth and Merit in
Cramlington, which can provide a wealth of opportunities to our
young people. Will my right hon. Friend agree to meet me so that
we can discuss how to best meet the educational needs of our
young people and employers, and bridge that skill gap to ensure
we have the best facilities for all the pupils in Blyth
Valley?
We have embarked on a skills revolution that brings together our
business and education communities to ensure that all courses are
of a high quality and fit for purpose. I would be delighted to
meet my hon. Friend, who is an excellent champion for his
community.
I chair the women and enterprise all-party parliamentary group,
and we are about to deliver our latest report, which focuses on
skills and education. The Government skills bootcamps have been a
fantastic innovation, but can my right hon. Friend provide more
detail on how successful they have been in encouraging and
inspiring young women and girls into new careers, particularly in
more male-dominated industries?
Our programmes and reforms are designed to ensure that all
students get the chance to undertake high-quality learning. Our
digital bootcamps had 47.9% female attendance, and every student
gets an interview, including in male-dominated industries,
because we are the party and the Government of opportunity.
Covid-19 Closures: Educational Disadvantage
(Meon Valley) (Con)
14. What recent comparative assessment he has made of the
potential educational disadvantage due to school and classroom
closures as a result of the covid-19 outbreak for (a) those
eligible for the pupil premium and (b) other pupils.
The Minister for School Standards ( )
According to Renaissance Learning, pupils were one to three
months behind in their learning in summer 2021, with improvements
since the spring. Pupil premium pupils were half a month further
behind in primary and two months further behind in secondary. We
have announced a new £1 billion recovery premium to support
disadvantaged pupils, with extra support in secondary, to reflect
the evidence. That is part of our £4.9 billion investment in
education recovery.
Mrs Drummond
I thank the Minister for his comments. Research from education
charities, such as Teach First, has found that during the
pandemic children from disadvantaged backgrounds were twice as
likely to have fallen behind as those from more affluent ones. I
am particularly concerned about pupils with special educational
needs in Hampshire, who are falling behind where they should be.
Has he considered any further measures to help them?
Mr Walker
My hon. Friend is right to raise these concerns. We have
consistently prioritised children with special educational needs,
for example, by providing additional SEN uplifts in the catch-up
and recovery premiums for 2020 to 2022. We also set an
expectation that those with education, health and care plans
would be able to attend schools throughout the pandemic and
ensured that special schools remained open. We announced an
additional £1 billion of recovery funding directly to schools to
support catch-up over the two years from the academic year
2022-23.
BTEC Qualifications
(Liverpool, Riverside)
(Lab)
15. What steps he is taking to help ensure that students can
continue to study BTEC qualifications.
(Liverpool, Wavertree)
(Lab)
17. What recent assessment he has made of the impact of removing
funding for BTEC qualifications on students.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education ()
I can confirm, following what my right hon. Friend the Secretary
of State said, that we are not planning to remove funding from
all BTECs. We will continue to fund high-quality qualifications,
including BTECs, that can be taken alongside, or as alternatives
to, T-levels and A-levels where there is a clear need for skills
and knowledge. We will be led by the evidence and the final
decision on qualifications reform will be taken in due
course.
I welcome the Minister’s response to the question, but the
Department’s own equalities impact assessment concluded that
those from SEND black and disadvantaged backgrounds, and males
were
“disproportionately likely to be affected”
by the plan to scrap the majority of BTECs. The City of Liverpool
College offers 21 BTEC and 51 level 3 qualifications, and 1,400
learners would be impacted by the proposed changes. Is it not
time that he listened to the calls from the Protect Student
Choice campaign to rethink this damaging proposal?
I thank the hon. Lady for her question. She is a powerful
advocate for the people of Liverpool. I would, respectfully, draw
her attention to page 13 of the “Government consultation
response: impact assessment”, which states:
“Following the additional flexibility on the future academic
landscape, and the accompanying updated mapping and data,
students from Black ethnic groups are no longer anticipated to be
disproportionately highly affected. “
She raises an important point, which we are mindful of; we want
all students, at all levels, to have the best opportunities. That
is why we are reviewing level 3 qualifications and level 2
qualifications, so that we can have a qualifications system that
gives students the skills they need, to get the jobs they need,
for the economy we want.
Given that 4,500 young people in Liverpool alone studied BTECs in
2020—the figure is an underestimate, as it does not include older
BTECs—the Government’s plan to scrap the majority of these
qualifications will leave thousands of students in cities such as
Liverpool without a viable pathway at the age of 16. Will the
Secretary of State and his Ministers listen to the 24 education
bodies in the Protect Student Choice campaign and the 118
parliamentarians who wrote to him about this issue, or perhaps to
former Conservative Secretary of State Lord Baker, who has
described the plan as an “act of educational vandalism”? Despite
what the Secretary of State and the Minister have said, will they
rethink the proposal to defund most BTECs?
I thank the hon. Lady for her question; it is nice to have two
questions from Liverpool back to back. I must tell the House that
we are undertaking an historic reform of technical education in
this country. We want technical qualifications, at all levels,
that are designed with employers, to give students the
opportunities they need. At 16, that will mean that some students
will get gold-standard level 3 qualifications that will lead to
work, degree-level apprenticeships or higher education. For some,
it will mean excellent level 2 qualifications, which will lead to
apprenticeships or to work, or to our lifetime skills guarantee,
announced by the Prime Minister in September 2020, allowing
everybody to get a level 3 qualification.
(Chesterfield) (Lab)
Clearly, it would have been sensible for the Government to have
finished their evidence and understood the outcome of the policy
before starting to undermine BTECs by announcing that they would
defund many of them. There is a widespread body of opinion that
many of the 230,000 students studying level 3 BTEC qualifications
might not be able to get on to that qualification in future. Will
the new Minister—I should have welcomed him to his place; I do so
late in my question—tell us in which year the Government are
likely to meet their target of having 100,000 students studying
T-levels? Will he guarantee that those changes will not lead to a
reduction in the number of students studying level 3
qualifications in the future?
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his belated welcome.
We just had a historic spending review for skills in this
country, with £2.8 billion of capital for skills, including money
to deliver new T-levels across the spending-review period. Those
T-levels will give more students the opportunity to progress into
work at a higher level. Our level 2 review will enable more
students to progress into work at the right level for them.
Topical Questions
(Crawley) (Con)
T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental
responsibilities.
The Secretary of State for Education ()
The Chancellor’s announcement last week in respect of my
Department’s spending plans was about skills, schools and
families. For schools, that means a cash increase of £1,500 per
pupil by 2024-25, compared with 2019, as well as almost £2
billion further to catch up on lost learning. For skills, it
means £3.8 billion of investment over this Parliament to ensure
that people can access high-quality training and education,
thereby opening the door to good jobs and driving forward our
plan for growth. For families, it means support for the most
disadvantaged, boosting childcare and ensuring that no one is
left behind.
I warmly welcome the £1 billion-worth of recovery funding that
was announced in the spending review to help children catch up
after the disruption caused by covid. Will my right hon. Friend
say a little more about how that funding will be deployed to help
disabled children access services that have been impacted by the
pandemic?
The new recovery funding will help schools deliver evidence-based
approaches to support the most disadvantaged pupils, including
eligible pupils with special educational needs and disabilities
or education, health and care plans. That funding is on top of
this year’s £8.9 billion of high-needs funding for children with
more complex needs, and there is £42 million for projects that
support children and young people with SEND.
(Hampstead and Kilburn)
(Lab)
The Government’s own early years health adviser, the right hon.
Member for South Northamptonshire (Dame ), has said that every family
in England should have access to a local hub, with parent and
child support services. That is exactly what Labour ensured while
in government, by building 3,600 Sure Start centres; this
Government have closed 1,000 of them and then provided piecemeal
funding for what they call “family hubs” in only half of local
authorities. If the Secretary of State will not match Labour’s
ambition for families, will he at least match the ambition of his
early years health adviser, who, I notice, is in the Chamber?
Where we disagree, respectfully, is that there are now 3,000
family centres. All the evidence suggested that the Sure Start
scheme invested in buildings rather than in the families we
needed to reach. My right hon. Friend the Member for South
Northamptonshire (Dame ) was absolutely on the right
track in championing the first 1,001 critical days. I saw that at
first hand at the family hub in Harlow—I was with the Chairman of
the Education Committee, my right hon. Friend the Member for
Harlow ()—which combined multi-agency
services to bring in the families we really want to reach, not
just the families who are capable of accessing Government
services. That is the big difference. My hon. Friend the Minister
for Children and Families will lead on the launch of 75 such
hubs, which will make a real difference to the families that we
need to reach.
(Gedling) (Con)
T7. My teenage constituents Amy and Ella Meek created the
charity Kids Against Plastic to campaign against the use of
plastic, and they are currently running the very successful
Plastic Clever Schools initiative to encourage schools to reduce
plastic usage. Their work was recognised at the weekend, when
they were crowned green champions at this year’s Pride of Britain
awards. Will my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State join me
in congratulating Amy and Ella on their success and in meeting
them to discuss their ongoing work and to see what more can be
done to rid schools of single-use plastics?
The Minister for School Standards ( )
I would be delighted to join my hon. Friend to meet Amy and Ella
to discuss their idea and the resources they have created through
their Plastic Clever Schools campaign. Only last week, in a
debate in the House, I discussed the importance of teaching about
climate change and sustainability in schools. I am looking
forward to visiting, this Friday, the Rivers multi-academy trust,
to learn about how it incorporates sustainability into its
curriculum.
Ian Lavery (Wansbeck) (Lab)
T2. Schools in my constituency of Wansbeck and right across
Northumberland already face a backlog of repairs of up to £80
million, and now face a huge hike on energy costs—48% on gas and
26% on electricity. The dilemma for headteachers in
constituencies such as mine might be heating or learning. Where
is the support and how does this fit in with the Government’s
levelling-up agenda?
Mr Walker
I point the hon. Gentleman to the Government’s £1.8 billion
investment in the condition of schools this year. We continue to
invest in schools. I was delighted to see in the spending review
that £2.6 billion additional funding to drive up provision in
high needs and special needs.
(Sevenoaks) (Con)
T8. After a long-fought campaign, I am delighted that
Orchards Academy has been given the funding to be rebuilt. Will
the Minister join me on a visit to Orchards so that he can see
the difference that this funding will make to the local community
in Swanley?
I am pleased to hear that Orchards Academy is one of the first
100 schools to benefit from the schools rebuilding programme. I
will certainly join my hon. Friend on a visit.
Mr Speaker
I call the SNP spokesperson.
(Glasgow North West)
(SNP)
The presence of anti-vaxxers outside schools throughout the
United Kingdom is something that should concern us all,
particularly as we enter the winter months. What work is the
Secretary of State doing to ensure that young people are
safeguarded against dangerous misinformation, and what work is
being done to counter the misinformation that they are being
given?
I am grateful to the hon. Lady for her important question. A unit
at the Cabinet Office has been working with social media
platforms to highlight anti-vax misinformation and to take it
down as quickly as possible. I continue my work with the Home
Secretary to make sure that no one feels under threat in any of
our educational establishments from anti-vaxxers.
Dame (South Northamptonshire)
(Con)
I am so grateful to my right hon. Friend and to our brilliant new
children’s Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Colchester
(), for their commitment to
giving every baby the best start in life. Does my right hon.
Friend agree that absolutely key to the success of family hubs is
that, unlike under the old Sure Start scheme, every family can
have midwifery visits, health visits, advice for mental health
and breast-feeding support and that that is what makes a real
difference to every new family?
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education ()
I thank my right hon. Friend for her question. The Budget
announcement rightly demonstrates our commitment to family hubs
and start for life. Family hubs bring together services for
children of all ages with a great start for life offer at their
very core. I very much look forward to working with her to ensure
that they deliver for parents, carers and, importantly,
babies.
(Coventry North West)
(Lab)
T5. Last week, the Chancellor set out in his Budget that
per pupil funding in schools in England will return to the same
level as in 2010. However, with teachers overstretched, class
sizes growing, the attainment gap widening, school budgets
squeezed for a decade and the devastating impact of the pandemic,
this commitment will mean little for schools in my constituency.
Can the Secretary of State honestly say to parents and teachers
in Coventry that winding the clock back to 2010 is a sustainable
way to fund our schools?
I am grateful to the hon. Lady for her question. I visited
Coventry West Academy—I know that it is not in her constituency,
but it is certainly a fantastic school that is being rebuilt with
more than £30 million of investment. It will be operationally net
zero and built in Coventry, not far from where the school is.
Teachers have gone above and beyond in everything that they have
done. I thank them as well as school leaders from the bottom of
my heart for what they have done. Of course the increase of
£1,500 per pupil in the core schools budget from 2019-20 is a big
step forward as is the recovery funding of £5 billion.
(West Suffolk) (Con)
May I welcome the Secretary of State’s early focus on illiteracy
and tackling illiteracy? As a proud dyslexic, I ask him whether
he agrees with me that we cannot tackle illiteracy unless we
ensure that all those with neuro-diversity, including dyslexics,
get identified and the support that they need to learn
properly.
I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for his question. He has
been a champion for some of the new technologies and new evidence
emerging around the world about identifying and screening for
dyslexia. I will happily meet him and have a look at what we can
do to scale that up in the United Kingdom.
(Bristol East) (Lab)
When a child has a parent who goes to prison, too often the
support services are all focused on the needs of the prisoner and
are run by the Ministry of Justice. Is the Children’s Minister
prepared to meet the charity Children Heard and Seen and me, so
that they can hear the views and support needs of the children
who are left behind, particularly where parental contact might
not be appropriate?
We recognise the impact that having a parent in prison can have
on a child’s wellbeing, behaviour, mental health and learning.
That is why we have clear statutory guidance that support should
be based on the needs of the child, not solely the characteristic
of having a parent in prison. Of course I would be happy to meet
the hon. Lady to discuss this important issue further.
(Guildford) (Con)
I was very sad to see that Professor Kathleen Stock decided to
step down from Sussex University following a sustained campaign
of bullying and harassment. Will my right hon. Friend outline how
the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill will uphold freedom
of speech in our higher education institutions?
The Minister for Further and Higher Education ()
I, too, was horrified by what has happened in regard to Professor
Stock, who has had to resign due to sustained harassment and
bullying. This cannot be tolerated on our campuses, which is why
the Government are delivering a freedom of speech and academic
freedom Bill that will ensure that universities not only protect,
but promote free speech. I welcome at this opportunity—
Mr Speaker
Order. I call .
(Twickenham) (LD)
I was shocked to learn on a recent visit to St James’s Catholic
Primary School in Twickenham that parents were being asked to
donate to fund pupils’ recovery from the pandemic. Although last
week’s announcement was welcome, it is still only a third of the
amount that the Government’s own adviser recommends for education
recovery. Will the Minister commit to the additional £10
billion?
Mr Walker
As the hon. Lady says, the additional £1 billion of investment in
recovery is welcome. More importantly, it is also evidence led.
We need to ensure that we follow the evidence to the
interventions that make the most difference, and that is exactly
what we are going to do.
(South Basildon and East
Thurrock) (Con)
Will my hon. Friend tell the House what work is under way to
ensure that the key stage 3 and 4 curriculum is aligned with the
jobs of the future, not just the jobs of today?
Mr Walker
My hon. Friend raises a hugely important point, and I would be
happy to meet him to discuss it. As I read across the enormous
breadth of my new brief, I recognise that meeting the challenges
of the 21st century through the curriculum is essential.
(York Central)
(Lab/Co-op)
Four hundred and thirty-nine pupils were absent from school with
covid-19. Of course, that is impacting on their education, but
the real crime is the fact that they want their vaccines and are
not getting them. What is the Secretary of State doing to ensure
that pupils do get their vaccine and we stop this delay?
The school-age vaccination system is working. This week, the
Health Secretary again announced a big drive in schools to ensure
that we continue to protect and vaccinate 12 to 15-year-olds as
we did through the holiday period and, of course, before that
when we began the programme. It is big push to ensure that we
vaccinate and protect those 12 to 15-year-olds.
(Milton Keynes North)
(Con)
I am sure that my right hon. Friend shares my admiration for our
wonderful, world-leading universities sector, and that he is
aware of my campaign for a new university in Milton Keynes. Does
he agree that the best way to underline the reputation for the
quality and integrity of our world-leading institutions is to ban
so-called essay mills?
Yes.
(North West Durham)
(Con)
The condition of the buildings at Witton-le-Wear Primary School
is really good, but the conditions for learning are not, given
that there are partition walls between the classrooms because the
school was built for 50 children, rather than the 80 who are
currently there. Will the Minister meet me to discuss
Witton-le-Wear Primary School and what can be done for the
future?
Mr Walker
Delighted to.
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Can I ask the Secretary of State
to clarify what he meant by “3,000 family centres”, because we
know that they are not 3,000 family hubs?
Mr Speaker
Does the Secretary of State want to answer? Does somebody want to
clarify whether that is right or wrong? Secretary of State, go
on.
The family hubs are a new investment. There are local authorities
that have reconfigured how they do things, but there are 3,000
centres that serve those families in different ways—that may be
virtual or physical.
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