Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con) [R] I beg to move, That this House has
considered the effectiveness of the Government’s education catch-up
and mental health recovery programmes. I thank the hon. Member for
Liverpool, Riverside (Kim Johnson) for coming to the Backbench
Business Committee to secure the debate. The impact of covid-19 on
education has been nothing short of a national disaster for our
children. Lockdowns and school closures for most children have
heralded...Request free trial
(Harlow) (Con) [R]
I beg to move,
That this House has considered the effectiveness of the
Government’s education catch-up and mental health recovery
programmes.
I thank the hon. Member for Liverpool, Riverside () for coming to the Backbench
Business Committee to secure the debate. The impact of covid-19
on education has been nothing short of a national disaster for
our children. Lockdowns and school closures for most children
have heralded the four horsemen of the education apocalypse: a
widening attainment gap, a mental health epidemic, increased
safeguarding hazards and damage to life chances. Even prior to
the pandemic, disadvantaged pupils were already 18 months of
learning behind their better-off peers by the time of GCSEs, and
only yesterday The Times newspaper, as part of its education
commission, reported that 25% fewer poorer pupils achieve English
and maths GCSEs compared with their wealthier peers.
Today I would like to focus on three key issues affecting
children’s recovery. First, I will start with the ghost children.
On Sunday, the respected Centre for Social Justice published a
new report, “Lost but not forgotten”, which continues to
highlight the worrying situation of the over 100,000 children—and
the number is increasing—who have mostly not returned to school
since schools were reopened last year. Across the country, 758
schools are missing almost an entire class-worth of children.
About 500 children are missing in half of all local authorities
across the country. The Government want exams to go ahead, which
I agree with, but 13,000 children in a critical exam year
“are most likely to be severely absent.”
As my Education Committee heard from a headteacher last week:
“Pupils need to be physically in school to even start to
learn.”
However, the effects of persistent absence go well beyond
academic progress. The CSJ again points out that while
“school attendance is not a panacea, it…offers opportunities to
detect wrongdoing and intervene much earlier.”
This would prevent safeguarding concerns from escalating and
would provide the families with the support they need when they
need it. We only need to remember the tragic cases of Arthur
Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson to realise this truth.
Of course, I welcome the Government’s recent announcements
“to tackle the postcode lottery of avoidable absence”,
but this is no way near enough. The Department for Education must
prioritise gathering live data about who and where these children
are—the data is absolutely crucial—and I urge the Government to
use any underspend from the national tutoring programme, as the
Centre for Social Justice has recommended, to fund 2,000
attendance advisers to work on the ground to find these children,
work with the families and get the children back into school.
Charles Dickens wrote in “Oliver Twist”
“of so many things forgotten, and so many more which might have
been repaired!”
We must do much more to save this “Oliver Twist” generation of
ghost children, who are out in the streets and facing
safeguarding hazards, including joining county line gangs, and
facing online harms at home and possible high-pressure home
situations such as domestic abuse. If we do nothing or we do not
do enough, we will be haunted by these ghost children
forever.
Secondly, we must consider the efficacy of the Government’s
education catch-up programmes. I strongly welcome the catch-up
programmes—I campaigned for them for literally the year during
lockdown—and I welcome the £5 billion invested in education
recovery, but my key worry is that the funding, however welcome,
is not reaching the most vulnerable children in our
communities.
The national tutoring programme is falling short of its targets:
524,000 children were supposed to start tutoring this year, but
only 8% have begun. The Education Policy Institute has found that
there has been a marked disparity in the take-up of the national
tutoring programme between the north and the south. In the north
just 50% of schools engaged with the national tutoring programme,
whereas in the south upwards of 96% of schools engaged with the
programme. In December, the Department published its own annual
report evidencing that the Government believe the risk that their
catch-up programme will fail to recover lost learning is
“Critical/very likely”. That is a direct quote from the
Department’s own annual report.
Headteachers and tutoring groups have described to us the
inaccessibility of the hub, and the lack of quality assurance
about the tutors on offer. Yesterday, I did a roundtable with
heads from university technical colleges —an initiative I am
incredibly supportive of—and the principal of Aston University
Sixth Form in Birmingham said that, despite receiving about
£60,000 of recovery funding and an offer of three NTP tutors, as
of yesterday just one had started, and it is now forced to resort
to expensive private tutoring. The NTP has the potential to be a
really great intervention by the Government to support children’s
recovery, but it is not going far enough or happening quickly
enough. I strongly urge the Minister to look again at the
contract and seriously consider enacting the break clause and
working with Randstad to up its game or literally say
goodbye.
However, recovery is not just about academic catch-up. We need to
look at other measures to support pupils. I welcome the pilot
scheme in Wales on extending the school day, in which 14 primary
and secondary schools will trial an additional five hours of
bespoke activities in art, music, sport and core academic
sessions. Let me be clear: when I say we should consider
extending the school day, I am not talking about pupils sitting
through eight more hours of algebra, although the Minister would
probably like that. Instead, as in Wales, a longer school day
should be used to support enrichment and extracurricular
activities, which have been proven to support academic
attainment.
The Education Policy Institute found that a longer school day
could increase educational attainment by two to three months. The
Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport found that an
extended school day can boost numeracy skills by 29%. Young
people who participate in school clubs are 20% less likely to
suffer from mental health problems. Why cannot the Government at
least consider implementing a pilot for longer school days, as
Wales has done, to help to give disadvantaged children in England
the best chance of closing the gap with their peers?
Thirdly, we must address the challenges with children’s mental
health. Like the Minister, I go to schools in my constituency and
all over the place, and I am struck again and again, when
speaking to students, that they talk about mental health in a way
I have not heard over the past few years. That has been hugely
caused by the damage of lockdown and shutting schools, which we
must never, ever do again.
(East Antrim) (DUP)
I thank the right hon. Gentleman for the important points he is
making. On the issue of mental health, this week the all-party
parliamentary group on pandemic response and recovery had
evidence from psychologists of long standing in the field,
indicating that one of the greatest causes of stress and mental
health problems in young children at school was the continual
testing that takes place for covid. Does he accept that, given
the way the virus is now moving, we must look at whether such
extensive testing is needed, evaluate its significance anyhow,
and address this issue, which is putting many children off even
wanting to go to school?
As so often, the right hon. Gentleman makes a powerful point. My
view has always been that we seem to be putting burdens on
children all the time, when they are at low risk—thank
goodness—from covid, yet we do not do the same to adults. It is
children who have really suffered during this pandemic. We have
all let them down through some of the policies that have been
implemented. I understand why that was done, but our children
have really struggled, so I have sympathy for what he says.
(Warrington South) (Con)
I thank the Chair of the Education Committee for his excellent
speech. I agree with him on many of the points he raises. As he
knows, I chair the all-party parliamentary group for school
exclusions and alternative provision, and we had a meeting just
this morning with professionals in that area. There is a crisis
in AP at the moment, due to the sheer numbers of young people who
cannot be in mainstream education because of the crisis in mental
health that he has just mentioned. Does he agree that it is
critical that the Government find funding for high-quality AP and
offer more guidance to local authorities on how to use their high
needs block to ensure that those much-needed provisions are
available now in local communities?
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Forty children are excluded
every school day and, sadly, they are not ending up in quality
alternative provision. There is a postcode lottery, despite the
wonderful efforts of many teachers in AP. There needs to be a
dramatic change. I would like kids to stay in the school but have
support training centres in the school. As Michael Wilshaw, the
former head of Ofsted, said to our Committee, there should be
many more of them so that kids are not just dumped out into the
streets and left, often, to their own devices or to poor-quality
provision.
(Stoke-on-Trent North)
(Con)
My right hon. Friend knows that he and I have a slight difference
of opinion when it comes to the idea of exclusion. However, I
always want to be careful about one thing: that we talk about
what the school could do. Does he agree that there always needs
to be a firm conversation about what more parents can do to
support the teachers to ensure that their children do not end up
being excluded?
Yes, 100%. I like the message coming out of the Department for
Education that this is not just about schools and skills, but
families, schools and skills. Families are central to this and we
should do everything possible to strengthen them. I welcome the
hundreds of millions of pounds that the Government are putting
into early intervention, particularly to build family hubs around
the country.
Let us look at the horrific statistics on mental health: 17.4% of
children aged six to 16 had a probable mental health disorder in
2021, up from 11.6% in 2017. Overall, child mental health
referrals are up by 60%, so the Government must rocket-boost
their proposals to put a mental health professional in every
school, not just in 25% of them. We should also ensure—this
perhaps relates to some of the question from my hon. Friend—that
interventions to support mental health are not seen as crutches,
but designed to prevent more serious escalation.
I have mentioned before in this House my visit to Newham
Collegiate Sixth Form Centre, which is an extraordinary school.
Staff there do not like the words mental health; they talk about
mental health resilience. Throughout school life, pupils are
taught the tools and tactics that they need to deal with the
challenges that life throws at them. Private study periods have
desks set up in an exam style to help pupils to familiarise
themselves with the setting to reduce their anxiety, and in
school assemblies, pupils learn from sport celebrities about the
techniques that they use to deal with high-pressure situations.
We need to talk about this in terms of mental health
resilience.
We should also tackle the wrecking ball that social media has
been to young people’s mental health. The Prince’s Trust found
that
“social media use in childhood is associated with worse
wellbeing”,
and 78% of Barnardo’s practitioners reported that children
between the ages of 10 and 15 have accessed unsuitable or harmful
content. The platforms provided by companies such as TikTok, in
my view—I am not a luddite; I love technology—are a Trojan horse
for damaging children’s lives, not just with their huge amount of
sexualised content, but through the damage that they are doing
because of the images that children see. There should be a 2%
levy on these social media companies, which would create a
funding pot of around £100 million that the Government could
distribute to schools to provide mental health support and
digital skills training to young people to build the resilience
and online safety skills that they need.
I note my heartfelt thanks to all the teachers and support staff
in my Harlow constituency and around the country for their heroic
efforts throughout the pandemic to keep our children learning.
There has been welcome investment in education recovery and some
great work is happening, but there is much more to do. The
Government must deal with the problem of ghost children to
prevent the creation of the “Oliver Twist” generation that will
potentially be forgotten forever. The Education Secretary has a
real grip of his Department, and I admire many of the things that
he is doing, but he has to make sure that the catch-up recovery
reaches the most disadvantaged pupils and works efficiently.
Given the scale of the mental health challenges facing our young
people, action has to be taken now to prevent this becoming an
epidemic.
Finally, I say to the Minister that there are great initiatives
coming out of the Department. The home education register, which
we supported in our Committee and is recommended our report, is
very welcome. Sometimes, however, the education system resembles
a whole lot of clothes pegs without a washing line. We need the
washing line—the narrative, the strategy, the Government’s plans
for education. This problem can be solved. The NHS has a
long-term plan and a secure funding settlement; the Ministry of
Defence has a strategic review and an additional £20 billion. I
urge the Minister to ensure that education has a long-term plan
and a secure funding settlement, so we can have that washing
line. While many of the clothes pegs are great initiatives, we
need a proper washing line to link them all together.
Several hon. Members rose—
Madam Deputy Speaker ( )
Order. I expect this debate to take until about half-past three,
so there is just over an hour left. I know that Members will want
to leave enough time for the Minister to answer their questions
and, indeed, for the shadow Minister to speak. I hope that we can
manage without a formal time limit. If everyone takes about five
minutes, everyone will have an opportunity to speak. If that does
not work, I will introduce a time limit.
2.25pm
(Newcastle upon Tyne East)
(Lab)
It is a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Harlow
(). We have debated this and
related issues before, but today’s debate is particularly
important to the life chances of our young constituents. If we
believe in social mobility and trying to make things better for
the next generation than they were for the last, this debate
should be at the heart of those ambitions. I agree with a great
deal of what the right hon. Gentleman has said, and accept that
the Department, and indeed the Government in general, are making
some movement in the direction in which I would like to see us
go. Certainly there is common ground and much to be discussed
between us.
As usual, these matters boil down to “but more needs to be done”.
Let me briefly run through the issues that I think are at the
heart of this. The education catch-up programme needs to reach
into the schools. Eighty per cent. of schools in the north-east
of England which responded to a recent survey—I accept that this
information is patchy—said that the Government’s education
recovery package was not sufficient to address the impact of the
pandemic. More than half of them thought that the catch-up would
take five years or more. Since the start of the pandemic, each
pupil has had an average of 115 days out of school. The
north-east of England saw the highest rise in absence compared
with anywhere else in the country in the last year, and I
therefore consider that our area ought to benefit from the
highest response in the form of countervailing measures to help
us to catch up with more prosperous parts of the United
Kingdom.
I believe that the Government should focus on three key issues to
prevent further disruption. I will observe your strictures on
brevity, Madam Deputy Speaker. Those issues are testing,
classroom ventilation and vaccines.
Testing schoolchildren regularly is essential to ensure that the
infected are isolated and pupils can carry on learning in person.
I want to see the Government increase communication with parents
to raise awareness of the latest testing guidance, and to work
with schools by providing tests for pupils to take home and to
promote uptake.
Ventilation may seem a prosaic issue, but I am convinced that it
is not. I am not critical of what the Government have done in
this respect, but I do think that the approach should be more
holistic. For some time now, we have been urging the Government
to get proper ventilation systems into schools and colleges.
Quality learning requires a comfortable environment, not one in
which students and staff must wear coats to keep warm in cold
classrooms. The Government must increase the supply now, and
ensure that every school is provided with an adequate ventilation
system.
The vaccine programme is a key tool—it would even be reasonable
to argue that it was the key tool—in preventing further
disruption to education. About 2 million 12 to 17-year-olds
remain unvaccinated. Some 16 weeks after the vaccine was
approved, about half of 12 to 15-year-olds have still not
received their first jab. The programme is way behind schedule.
Again, I do not want to be critical, because I know that people
are trying and doing their best, but as ever, more needs to be
done. We need to ramp up the vaccination of pupils.
That is my key take on the issue, but I will also say a few words
on the mental health recovery programme. We debated it recently,
but the issue is growing. Young people have endured such a long
period away from in-person learning, largely because of the
pandemic. A recent YoungMinds survey found that two thirds of
young people aged 13 to 25 believe that the pandemic will have a
negative long-term impact on their mental health. We must do
everything we can to ameliorate that.
Record pressures on mental health services cause many sufferers
to turn to A&E as a last resort, but by that stage, the
issues that require attention can be significant and complex. It
is a relatively ineffective way of trying to deal with mental
health problems, even if there is provision in the A&E, which
there is not always. Earlier intervention is possible and would
have significant benefits.
Some 50% of mental health disorders are present by the age of 14
and that increases to 75% by the age of 18, but the provision of
mental health services in schools is patchy. As we have debated
before, there is no legal requirement on schools in England,
although there is in other parts of the United Kingdom.
School-based counselling is a proven intervention for children
and young people experiencing psychological distress. As well as
making for better health outcomes, early intervention makes
economic sense and ought to relieve pressure later down the line
for the national health service.
There is a successful school-based counselling pilot, of which I
am very proud, in the Newcastle upon Tyne East constituency. I
enthusiastically commend it and everyone involved, as I do the
similar projects that are in place. The project’s early results
are encouraging: it finds an improvement in educational
attainment for around one in three pupils who received
counselling. I support demands to make school-based counselling
services more consistent across the country.
The Minister’s programme is moving towards my ideal outcome—it is
not so far apart—so at least we are talking about the same sort
of thing. I back the Labour party’s proposals to ensure that
every school has specialist mental health support. If we were
looking to spend money—I mean, are we looking to spend money?—to
level up and help people, even perhaps because we believed in
social mobility, surely the life chances of the very young would
be the area in which to make a start. I am trying to build up the
current picture of mental health support teams and how they work
in practice with children, and the Minister generously offered us
an opportunity to take that up with him when we have a meeting
arranged.
I hope that my contribution to this important debate is accepted
as being bipartisan and as an attempt to draw people together to
make progress.
2.34pm
(Bolsover) (Con)
It is an honour to follow the right hon. Member for Newcastle
upon Tyne East (Mr Brown) and my right hon. Friend the Member for
Harlow (), who gave an excellent
speech outlining the scale of the problem we are looking to
solve.
In my two years and one month as the Member of Parliament for
Bolsover, we have had many divisions and many changes to our
country. However, what was hardest to support, and which I
probably regret the most, was closing schools to the majority of
pupils. Bolsover, as the levelling up White Paper outlined, is
already behind the rest of Derbyshire and the east midlands. In
hindsight, it is difficult to support what we did to schools and
I think I speak for many hon. Members on that front.
The challenge for our schools, teachers and families, of finding
a way through to catching up, is incredibly difficult. I echo my
right hon. Friend’s comments and thank all the teachers and
headteachers who, over the past couple of years, have continued
to go above and beyond. The scale of the challenge that
headteachers face is as big now as it was then, because they
continue to lose staff to omicron and so on. It is a constantly
shifting jigsaw. We should not lose sight of the fact that they
are trying to build a recovery on quicksand, because the
situation is shifting so much at the moment.
One very positive development worth noting is that we are again
talking about mental health. There has been a total
transformation in society over the last 10 years or so in how
open we are in discussing mental health. That is a massively
positive thing. In recent weeks and months, I visited a number of
my schools. The issues fed back to me on attainment, behaviour
and mental health were notable. It is amazing how many of my
primary schools said that when children, particularly the
youngest, returned, they were unable to share space, toys and
resources. That is a massive challenge because of covid. More
than one headteacher has used the word “feral” to describe
behaviour. Pupils returned in a state which meant they really had
to be managed in a completely different way and on a scale that
schools have not had to do before.
I have seen various hugely impressive approaches to this issue.
Bolsover Infant School has taken a back-to-basics approach and I
saw last week how that is working. Palterton Primary School has
just won an award for its use of physical education. One could
see from the behaviour in the school that it was having a huge
impact. Other creative ideas, such as the use of forest schools—I
say that nervously, as my hon. Friend the Member for
Stoke-on-Trent North () sits in front of me and
does not like such things—have been used by Shirland Primary
School and a primary school in Langwith. They have been shown to
have a hugely positive impact.
This is the scale of the challenge: record high demands in NHS
England data for accessing child mental health services; a 37%
increase in child mental health service referrals between April
2020 and March 2021; and a 59% increase in referrals for children
with eating disorders compared to previous years. As my right
hon. Friend the Member for Harlow said, there is a very clear
division between where that does and does not happen. Those who
are most affected are those from the worst backgrounds. We must
not lose sight of that.
I appreciate that the Government, with £5 billion investment, are
putting everything they can into catching up. Two days ago,
Derbyshire was identified as an education investment area, which
is a hugely important step. I note within that the provisions for
additional sixth forms. I know the Minister is very keen to help
me deliver a sixth form for my area, because we have no post-16
provision in my constituency. I have to say I did rather like the
idea of a longer school day. That is a very good proposal and I
am happy to have a go in Bolsover, but my headteachers may
disagree.
I will, if I may, just finish by saying that I have had some
feedback on the tutoring fund, which is that it is very difficult
to make it work locally: there is either a lack of suppliers or
some teachers are having to go on training, which takes them out
of the classroom, making it a bit of a tick-box exercise. Some
schools are even suggesting that they might give that funding
back, which seems rather perverse to me. I would appreciate it if
the Minister commented on that and could meet me to discuss that
issue. The scale of the challenge facing schools and headteachers
is incredibly difficult, but we do need to make sure that this is
a priority, because areas such as Bolsover were already behind
educationally and it is vital that we catch up, and that is a
real challenge.
2.40pm
(Mitcham and Morden)
(Lab)
Quite simply, this debate could not be any more important. The
inaction of the Government in catching up the lost learning of
our young people will be felt by many of them for a lifetime. Why
is it that our children, teachers and schools have been treated
as an afterthought at every stage of the pandemic? We have seen
the Government: closing schools without a second thought for
those pupils who could not log in or learn from home; opening
schools back up for less than 24 hours to encourage the virus to
run rife; and leaving every announcement until past even the 11th
hour—whether it be on exams, on testing, on vaccines.
When it comes to education, the contrast could not be starker.
This Government think that they can cut corners on the months of
lost learning, but, for Labour, education is so important that we
say it three times. The catch-up programme does not even come
close to meeting “the scale of the challenge.” Those are not my
words, but the words of the Government’s own education recovery
tsar whose resignation in June is all the evidence that anyone
needs when considering whether the scale of the challenge is
really understood. Sir Kevan’s essential proposals were watered
down to the tune of less than 10% of the funding that he insisted
was required. Why does the Minister think that this issue can be
just brushed under the carpet?
While the Chancellor blocks the catch-up funding with one hand,
he waves away wasted billions with another: £8.7 billion lost on
PPE; £4.3 billion handed out to fraudsters; and a bonus £200
million thrown at the plans to downgrade St Helier Hospital to
healthy, wealthy Belmont rather than keeping services where
health is poorest.
We are eight months on since Sir Kevan’s damning indictment of
the so-called catch-up plan. I take no satisfaction in saying
that every word of his damning predictions has come true. It is a
catch-up programme that is so inept that the national tutoring
programme is even teaching to empty classrooms. An assistant
headteacher at a school in Derby shockingly reports that her
school was paying a tutor to sit with no pupils for an hour. It
is scandalous. How is this possibly a good use of public funds,
and how on earth does it help our young children to catch up? The
failings are there for all to see. Only one in five headteachers
in the north-east of England uses the programme. Many schools
have found it impossible to enrol new children onto it, and the
scheme is reaching less than 10% of its target pupil number. It
is no wonder that tuition providers themselves have described it
as shambolic.
Before lockdown, children on free school meals were leaving
school 18 months behind their classmates and the gap was getting
worse. Schools closed and a quarter of these children did less
than one hour’s schoolwork a day. Lockdown was temporary but
could have a lifelong impact, with the Institute of Fiscal
Studies warning that students who had lost six months of
schooling could see a reduction in lifetime income of 4%.
In primary schools, the unavoidable reality is of a covid gap of
approximately two months’ learning in year 2 pupils and a
widening of the disadvantage gap in attainment. Meanwhile, a
quarter fewer poor pupils achieved English and maths GCSEs during
the pandemic than their richer classmates, and the divide
continues to grow.
There were 415,000 children off school with covid on 20 January,
but only 2% of teachers working in schools, serving the most
disadvantaged communities, said that all their pupils had
adequate access to devices and the internet to work from
home.Every click widens the attainment gap, which is why I am
calling for every child on free school meals to have the catch-up
kit and connectivity that they need to log in and learn from
home. The Government may be distracted by the hangover of their
party season, but their scant support for our students is no
cause for celebration. The Government must address this issue
with the gravity it requires or step aside so that we can get on
with the job, because our children, particularly our poorest
children, do not get a second chance.
2.45pm
(Meon Valley) (Con)
There is no doubt that lockdown has had a major impact on
children’s wellbeing, but it has given us an appreciation of the
amazing work that teachers do. Once again, I want to pay tribute
to every headteacher, teacher and support staff member in Meon
Valley. I have been really impressed by the way they have coped
in very difficult times. I am also very grateful to my right hon.
Friend the Member for Harlow (), the Chair of the Education
Committee, for securing this debate, as it brings forward many
thoughts about how we can best help our children and young people
in schools and colleges.
The pandemic has been hugely disruptive to education and there is
no doubt that pupils’ mental health issues have increased,
especially in secondary schools. I suggest that even before the
pandemic mental health and children’s happiness was already
becoming an issue. “The Good Childhood Report”, published in
August 2020 by The Children’s Society, which looked at the
happiness and mental health of 15-year-olds, had observed a
notable increase in the proportion of children with low
wellbeing—18% had low wellbeing, compared with figures of 11% to
13% in previous years. England ranked 36th out of 45 countries in
Europe and North America for young people’s life satisfaction. We
had the largest reduction in life satisfaction between 2015 and
2018 out of all participating countries. That is really not
acceptable.
The “State of the nation 2020: children and young people’s
wellbeing” report points out:
“Children’s wellbeing and their mental health can have a real
impact on their development into their full potential both now
and as a tool in their futures.”
The report shows a sustained dip in happiness with school and
there is strong evidence that fear of failure in 15-year-olds is
intrinsically linked to education. I reported about this in my
“One Nation” paper on education, as there was evidence that our
education and assessment system is no longer fit for purpose and
is not preparing our young people adequately for a life of work.
We have now heard from The Times Education Commission and the
independent assessment report from the National Education Union,
which provide more insight into what we can do to improve our
curriculum. I think that will improve young people’s views on
school and their mental health, and I will come back to that in a
moment.
Hampshire’s local authority has created mental health support
teams, which my local schools are finding very useful and should
be a model the Government should look to continue to invest in,
if not put further investment in, as child and adolescent mental
health services are overwhelmed.
(Watford) (Con)
I echo my hon. Friend’s thanks to teachers. Does she agree that
having mental health first aid training across the community, as
I am doing in Watford, where we are training 1,000 people in
mental health first aid awareness, would help with this and would
support teachers, parents, organisations and especially students
as they move forward?
Mrs Drummond
I totally agree with my hon. Friend. I know that the Government
have plans to ensure that teachers are also trained in mental
health provision. One of my local schools has employed its own
psychologist, as well as a mental health co-ordinator, and the
number of students in this school receiving external mental
health support has doubled in a year. Any further provision
within the school would be filled immediately, so the need is
increasing.
On a more positive note, “The Big Ask”, launched by the
Children’s Commissioner, reached 500,000 children, and young
people are now showing remarkable resilience and are determined
to work hard and do well. “The Big Ask” report also states that
the focus should be on helping every child to reach their goals,
but that that needs
“careful curriculum design, early intervention and responsive
teaching”.
Mental health is improved by providing subjects that young people
are interested in, which is why I am so vocal about a 14 to 18
curriculum. Yesterday I attended the launch of the NEU’s
commission on assessment, “A New Era”, and listened to young
people talk about their views. It is clear that they are
disappointed that the curriculum is limited, as is choice. They
were concerned that many of them will fail—one third do because
of the nature of the way exams are calculated—and they did not
feel that the curriculum prepared them for life. Interestingly
that is a theme from both of the commissions that have published
so far—another three will be publishing shortly.
There is an overall feeling that young people have become
stressed to the extent of asking, “What is the point of exams?”
They are being taught to the test and how to pass them, rather
than being educated. We need a curriculum that makes sense to
young people so that they see a reason for studying, and I
include vocational qualifications. We have lost creativity, and
teachers have lost the love of teaching. One young person
commented, “Teachers teach what they need to teach, not what they
would like to teach to pass on their love of learning.”
This is also the case in early years and key stage 1, where
children have lost much during the pandemic, particularly social
interaction and the building blocks of learning, yet we now have
tests in five of seven years in primary schools, at a time when
the love of learning should be established, rather than teaching
to tests. I am afraid that will continue to happen while we have
this system.
More Than a Score says that 93% of teachers want a review of
SATs, which are at the bottom of what parents look at when they
choose a school. When looking for a school, parents care most
about having teachers who care about their pupils and inspire
them to learn. When asked how schools should be measured post
pandemic, parents said it should be happiness and wellbeing of
pupils, pupils making progress at an appropriate pace and a
broad, rich curriculum. SATs came at the bottom again.
We need to assess pupils, but we must ensure that it is not at
the cost of breadth or depth of education. The school-led
tutoring grant has provided money for tutors, and schools are
very grateful. However, the money does not fund the full cost of
each tutor, and my schools say there is too much bureaucracy to
secure it. Will the Minister make it simpler?
Catching up is one reason why I am also calling for an extended
school day for everyone, not just to continue maths, English and
the core subjects but, as my right hon. Friend the Member for
Harlow said, to allow a wide range of extracurricular activities
such as music, art, sport and clubs—all the subjects that cannot
be fitted into the present school day and that contribute to
pupils’ wellbeing. There are examples across the country where
this is working well, and I urge the Government to look at them
as pilot schemes.
I am pleased that the Government will continue to fund another
couple of years of summer holiday schemes, which have been much
welcomed by schools and children alike, especially where they
give opportunities for children and young people to access a wide
range of projects, both for learning and fun.
The world is changing fast. Young people need to be flexible and
resilient but, most importantly, they need to be prepared for
work and for anything that might be thrown at them. The working
person is assessed on what they can do and what skills they
offer. The existing education system appears to be designed
around what pupils can remember for a short time. This has to
change. Parents want it to change, employers want it to change,
teachers want it to change and, more importantly, young people
want it to change. This will not happen overnight, but let us
listen to all these stakeholders and design a curriculum and an
education system that helps every child to achieve and to enjoy
their school day at the same time.
2.52pm
(Stretford and Urmston)
(Lab)
I am pleased to participate in this debate, and I agree with so
much of what has been said this afternoon.
Children and young people are ambitious and optimistic about
their future. As we have heard, education staff have made an
incredible effort to keep them learning and to support their
wellbeing during the pandemic, but we should not underestimate
the impact of the disruption they have suffered, especially those
who face the greatest challenges and who experience the lowest
attainment.
It is opportune that this debate is taking place against the
backdrop of yesterday’s Government announcement of new education
investment areas. This initiative has the potential to contribute
to children and young people’s education recovery, provided it is
properly led and designed; provided lessons are learned from
previous initiatives, such as the London challenge and the
opportunity areas; provided the right targets and success
measures are put in place; provided it is adequately resourced;
and provided the professional expertise of teachers and leaders
is respected and supported. An overcentralised, over-prescriptive
model will not deliver the hoped for benefits.
I echo the hon. Member for Meon Valley (Mrs Drummond) by
emphasising the importance of the early years when talking about
children’s recovery. We all know that investment in the early
years pays the greatest dividends in children’s outcomes, and
very young children have seen the greatest proportion of their
lives affected by the pandemic. As we have heard, this has
adversely affected their social skills, their vocabulary, their
development and, indeed, their school readiness.
I welcome the investment that the Government have announced, such
as for training early years staff or the Nuffield early language
intervention, but more is needed both in resources—the Minister
will be aware of Labour’s proposal for an increase in the early
years premium to match the primary pupil premium—and in a proper,
comprehensive and ambitious strategy for early education.
Funding for schools will not return in real terms to 2010 levels
until 2024, and the Institute for Fiscal Studies has shown that
by 2024-25, resources for colleges will still be about 10% lower
in real terms than they were in 2010, and that those for
sixth-form colleges will be 24% lower. It is not clear whether
the new funding for education investment areas will redress that
injustice. I note that additional funds are to be available only
to “some priority areas”, and the programme otherwise seems to
amount to little more than forced academisation for more
schools.
I echo the enthusiasm that we have heard this afternoon for an
extension to the school day. Indeed, the Secretary of State
himself has suggested that he would like all schools to consider
providing a school day of six and a half hours. Research suggests
that an extended school day, delivered by staff with high levels
of training and linked to existing classes and teaching, could be
important in helping children to make up lost learning. It could
allow for time to be allocated, too, for the one-to-one and small
group tutoring that we know to be effective.
As we have heard repeatedly this afternoon, however, the
Government’s national tutoring programme is failing to deliver
that. Ministers were warned that awarding a cut-price contract to
Dutch facilities company Randstad would deliver neither the
quality nor the volume needed, and that is exactly what has
happened. Some 600,000 places per term are needed for children’s
education recovery, yet the national tutoring programme is
currently reaching only 10% of target pupil numbers. The
Government need to do some serious thinking about the quality of
tutoring provided and the delivery and reach of the programme, so
that all children and young people who can benefit from it have
the chance to do so. If Randstad cannot deliver the contract
adequately, that contract should be removed from it, and those
who can handle it better, including our excellent school leaders,
should have the chance to do so.
I agree that making more time for children to engage in
extracurricular activities is really important as part of the
extension of the school day and to support social and emotional
wellbeing. Indeed, it might also increase participation by
appealing to those pupils who would otherwise miss out but who
could benefit most from extended provision, and ensure that these
vital wider activities are not squeezed out even further than is
already the case in a crowded curriculum. The Education Policy
Institute has said that any extra school time should be useful
for activity and enrichment activities, and that has also been
recommended by the Education Endowment Foundation toolkit.
However, teachers in England already work very long hours,
including on lesson preparation and complying with monitoring and
reporting requirements. In looking at an extension of the school
day, it is really important that we hear how the Government plan
to staff and resource it and to draw on the research evidence of
what is effective.
Finally, as we have heard, there is widespread agreement on the
importance of good mental health for successful learning and
wider social participation. That applies right across the
education sector, from early years to higher education, for
students and for the workforce. Parentkind has shown that exam
stress remains a top anxiety for students and that serious mental
health issues are experienced disproportionately by children and
young people from ethnic minority backgrounds, those with special
educational needs and disabilities, and those receiving free
school meals. It is not surprising that parents give strong
support for Labour’s plan for expert mental health support in
schools. I hope that Ministers will look really carefully at
that. May I also urge the Minister to engage with the #BeeWell
programme in Greater Manchester, which aims to work with young
people and a range of partners to improve mental health and
wellbeing?
We should also note that university mental health and wellbeing
services are supporting a higher volume of students, often with
more complex needs, as a result of the pandemic. Increased
pressure on NHS services means that university support services
have stepped in, but the lack of further detail about a new
approach to mental health services for 18 to 25-year-olds, as set
out in the NHS long-term plan, is an issue of concern. Increasing
capacity in statutory services, with seamless transitions across
university and NHS services, will be key to both preventing and
treating mental ill health among young adults and to supporting
their learning and wellbeing. I hope that the Minister will
co-operate closely with his counterparts at the Department of
Health and Social Care in order to secure that.
Our children and young people should and must be at the forefront
of our thinking as we recover from the pandemic. I hope this
debate will encourage a bold and ambitious approach from the
Government; the Minister will have heard this afternoon the
strong support for him in that endeavour from all parts of the
House.
Several hon. Members rose—
Madam Deputy Speaker ( )
Order. I must protect the rest of the time, so we will now have a
formal time limit of five minutes.
2.59pm
(Stoke-on-Trent North)
(Con)
It is an absolute pleasure to follow the hon. Member for
Stretford and Urmston (), whom I hold in high regard as
a parliamentarian. I thoroughly enjoyed our exchanges when I sat
here chuntering away and she was on the Opposition Front
Bench.
I thank my right hon. Friend the Member for Harlow () for securing the debate. He
is a long-term, passionate advocate, I enjoyed working under him
as he chaired the Education Committee and I continue to hear from
him.
Let us be frank: the Government have done an awful lot. Not only
have they thrown £5 billion at education recovery—including £1.5
billion for tutoring; £950 million direct to schools this
academic year and the previous one for evidence-based
interventions; £1 billion to extend the recovery premium to the
end of 2024; and £400 million for training and professional
development—but there was the excellent holiday activity fund,
which began in the great constituency of Stoke-on-Trent North,
Kidsgrove and Talke under the leadership of Carol Shanahan, the
co-owner of Port Vale football club and the co-chair of the Hubb
Foundation with Adam Yates, a former professional footballer.
During the pandemic they not only delivered 300,000 meals to
families across the city of Stoke-on-Trent but led the way in
offering more than 100 different opportunities for the holiday
activity programme, not by building shiny new buildings but by
using existing schools and their staff and relationships with the
people they knew, young and old, bringing them into the building
and providing one hot meal every single day. It was a fantastic
scheme and Carol and her team deserve all the plaudits they
get.
I was delighted to see that the “Levelling Up” White Paper builds
on the idea of levelling up and catching up in education. The
city of Stoke-on-Trent is now an education investment area,
bringing us a new high-quality 16-to-19 free school. I will of
course campaign for that to end up in the constituency of
Stoke-on-Trent North, Kidsgrove and Talke. I will not stop there,
though: if we are to help catch-up, we need to unlock free
schools for 11 to 16-year-olds. I have been working and having
conversations with Star Academies and Michaela Community School,
which is led by the fantastic Katharine Birbalsingh, who I hope
will bring a free school bid for the constituency in wave 15. It
is about having high standards, high expectations and a
knowledge-rich curriculum and shaking the apple tree in the great
city of Stoke-on-Trent so that we no longer accept mediocrity
when it comes to educational outcomes and destinations for our
young people but send a clear message that we can do this, we
expect and we want more for the young people we are proud to
serve with.
Let me just correct the record: my hon. Friend the Member for
Bolsover (), who is no longer in his
place, said that I might feel some illness about the idea of
forest schools, but I can confirm that my daughter’s nursery in
Weston has a forest school and I am proud that she can access
that. I have seen the benefits of forest schools at first hand at
Burnwood Community School in Chell.
I wanted to leave some time for some key things. I introduced a
ten-minute rule Bill on the Ofsted inspection of multi-academy
trusts, which had the backing of not only Government Members but
Members from both the Labour party and the Liberal Democrats. I
was very grateful for their support. Even though the Government
have sadly rejected that Bill, they have left open the window to
more discussions. I will embarrass the Government by reminding
them that the Minister’s Parliamentary Private Secretary, my hon.
Friend the Member for Wantage (), was a sponsor of that
Bill, so he knows all about it and will, I am sure, lobby
internally to make sure those changes are made.
We need to see more brokerage deals with the good multi-academy
trusts to make sure that they can enter the city of
Stoke-on-Trent and other areas, because if we are to help with
catching up, we need to bring the very best into our city.
Currently, too many single-academy trusts are not doing their
bit.
As the House will have heard from me from a sedentary position, I
absolutely adore the idea of extending the school day until 5 pm
or 6 pm—for as long as necessary. Schools are buildings that
young people know and where they feel safe. The extended school
day would provide the opportunity to build and harbour
relationships with parents, who could come into the building and
perhaps benefit from educational classes or opportunities through
the family hub model that the Government are pushing and for
which the city of Stoke-on-Trent is bidding. Hopefully, we will
get one hub per constituency—hint, hint, Minister. We want to see
that idea going forward. Although some people argue that the
extended school day should just be for the curriculum, I believe
it should also be used for enrichment. The youth guarantee offer
in the “Levelling Up” White Paper indicates that that is the
direction of travel.
Finally, we have selective education by religion, by postcode and
by house price; it is about time we unlocked selective education
by bringing back grammar schools so that parents have opportunity
and competition in their local area. I will shortly be leading a
campaign to unlock that potential for our great country.
3.04pm
(Richmond Park) (LD)
I will try to be brief, Madam Deputy Speaker. I thank the right
hon. Member for Harlow () for bringing this debate
before the House today, because it is such an important issue.
When I think about everything that is happening across Richmond
Park as we emerge from the pandemic, this is the No. 1 issue in
my constituency, particularly the mental health aspect. I have
had lots of conversations with schools throughout the pandemic
and as we have emerged from lockdown, and this is the most
important thing, more than anything else.
The education catch-up funding has been very welcome and has been
well used across my constituency, but it is the mental health
impact of the lockdown that is having the biggest impact on our
youngest citizens. When I speak to headteachers, I hear all sorts
of stories. They tell me about the new reception class that
started in September 2021: with these four and five-year-olds, so
much of their lives has been spent in lockdown that they are
suffering extreme separation anxiety from their parents. It is
not unusual in any reception year to find that one or two
children get anxious and teary about separating from their
parents, but they have whole classes who are crying for hours,
which is completely unprecedented. I fear for our very youngest
as they are entering their school years.
Going up through primary school age, we are finding that, in the
older years, the children who spent two years at home sat in
front of laptops are finding it really difficult to play with
each other. Small boys do not know how to play football in the
playground any more. I do not know about anyone else, but it is
those little details that I find really distressing, particularly
as the mother of an eight-year-old son: the thought that our
young people do not know how to play with each other. They do not
know how to share in the classroom, or how to talk to each other.
As we get through into secondary school, the impact of the past
two years is really beginning to show in young people who have
spent too much time on the internet over those years. They have
become isolated and do not know how to reach out, and are really
struggling with their self-image and their mental health. They
have spent too much time looking at sites that are frankly
unhelpful for their education. Misinformation has been a massive
source of problems during this pandemic for all sorts of people,
but for our young people most of all.
I want to pay my own tribute to all the teaching staff and
everybody involved in education across Richmond and Kingston.
They have been absolutely heroic and have really stepped up for
our young people, and I am absolutely in awe of what they have
achieved, but what is really coming through from them now is
that, more and more, they are having to deal with mental health
issues in the classroom. They are not trained to deal with those
issues, and they have enough to do to catch up on the academic
side, particularly for pupils who are approaching exams: there
have been so many absences in this academic year, which is a real
problem for those staff.
We need to broaden the mental health resources that are available
in the community. We need more school nurses, and those nurses
need to have training in mental health. We need to open up more
access to child and adolescent mental health services, because
the waiting lists are a real problem. We need adolescent mental
health services at our GPs. We need to give parents more options
so that, when they are at their wits’ end with how to help their
children, they know where to go, so that they are going not to
schools for help—schools that are ill-equipped to give it—but to
a range of different sources across the community. I know that
time is short, so if this is the only point I can make, please
can we have more resources to help our young people with their
mental health in schools and outside them? That, more than
anything else, is what Richmond Park needs.
Madam Deputy Speaker ( )
The time limit is now three minutes. I call .
3.08pm
(Strangford) (DUP)
As the grandfather of two covid babies who have not had the joy
of the local mums’ and toddlers’ groups and who have not been
able to build up essential social skills, to which the hon.
Member for Richmond Park () referred, I have real concern
about the long-term nature of the lockdown social skills gap. I
have seen mothers in churches unable to enjoy the service, as
their little one is frightened in creche as they have not mingled
with new people their entire lives. We have young children with
an enforced early understanding of mortality and with what, for
some, has turned into an obsession with hand cleaning. There are
long-term issues that we must put in the work to combat.
Some 12.6% of children and young people in Northern Ireland
experience common mood disorders such as anxiety and depression.
That is around 25% higher than in other nations. My colleague
Michelle Mcllveen, an MLA, the Education Minister for Northern
Ireland and a former teacher, has put some measures in place. I
want to comment on those measures, because I know that the
Minister here is always very interested to know what we are doing
back home. The Minister in Northern Ireland has put in place the
children and young people’s emotional health and wellbeing
framework. She has allocated an additional £16 million in funding
to that end. She has also set up a text-a-nurse service, a
REACH—resilience education assisting change to happen—youth
programme, an on-site nursing pilot in five post-primary schools
and independent counselling services for schools. I know that the
right hon. Member for Harlow () is always keen to hear what
we are doing in Northern Ireland so I wanted to add that.
A new training programme also provides an opportunity for the
entire education sector workforce of 60,000 staff to improve
their understanding of trauma, which is really important. The
Minister of Education has also put a further £5 million into
education wellbeing funding. The healthy happy minds pilot to
support therapeutic and counselling services in primary schools
has begun and, along with the Engage programme, supports children
and young people’s learning in the new academic year.
In response to the Belfast live great big parenting survey, 32%
of parents said that their children were struggling to cope with
their emotions; 23% said that they had always struggled but
lockdown was making it worse; and 15% said that they were having
problems with mental health for the first time. The pressure on
families is huge and we must alleviate it in a co-ordinated way
to ensure that no child is left behind and that every child who
is struggling knows that help is available in school and out of
school.
Needless to say, we can make a difference, but we must continue
to allocate the funding and actively work on restoring that which
covid has robbed our children of. Thank you very much Madam
Deputy Speaker.
3.11pm
(Portsmouth South) (Lab)
I would like to thank the right hon. Member for Harlow () for bringing forward this
important debate. It could not be more timely, a year on from Sir
Kevan Collins’ appointment as the Government’s education recovery
commissioner. I want to start by recognising the huge
contributions that our nation’s school and college staff, and
parents, have made to preserving and protecting our children’s
education every day since the beginning of the pandemic. They
continue to do so day in, day out. I also want to echo the
contributions of colleagues from across the House who have set
out the education recovery challenge we face with clarity and
compassion.
We have heard from a number of right hon. and hon. Members in
what has been a broad debate covering high needs challenges, the
crisis in mental health, the level of exclusions and the need for
urgency in tackling the issues at scale. My right hon. Friend the
Member for Newcastle upon Tyne East (Mr Brown) spoke about the
importance of communication with parents, and raised concerns
about ventilation and supplies of tests to schools. My hon.
Friend the Member for Mitcham and Morden (), who is a tireless
champion for schools and colleges in her constituency, spoke
about the last-minute chaotic announcements and the impact on
schools and children. She also spoke powerfully about children
not getting a second chance and why we have to get recovery
right. My hon. Friend the Member for Stretford and Urmston
() spoke about the importance of
adequate resources to meet the challenges faced, investment in
early years and Labour’s recovery plan. I pay tribute to her for
her tireless hard work on this ambitious plan.
While recovery is vital and the focus of today’s debate, school
staff, parents and pupils are still living with the day-to-day
reality of covid across the country. Pupil absences are up 35%
since the start of January, and a quarter of schools have 15% of
their teachers and leaders off work. But on both vaccination and
ventilation, Ministers continue to fall short on basic measures
that would keep children learning together and playing together.
The Education Secretary has yet to tell us exactly how many
volunteer teachers have come forward and what his workforce plan
looks like. Any member of school staff will tell you that we are
not out of the woods yet when it comes to covid. Yet we must act
immediately to tackle the generational education recovery
challenge we face.
As it stands, Ministers’ complacent and inadequate plans risk
widening existing inadequacies and inequalities, compounding the
damage caused by a decade of Conservative cuts and stunting the
life chances of a generation of children. The Institute for
Fiscal Studies found that an average loss of six months schooling
could see a reduction in their lifetime income of 4%. This
equates to a total of £350 billion in lost earnings for the 8.7
million school-age children in the UK.
This is the stark scale of the generational challenge we now
face, and the Government’s ambition must match it, yet the total
package of so-called catch-up funding equates to just £300 per
pupil. That is just £1 per day that children have been out of
school. Let us compare that with the £1,685 per pupil recommended
by the education recovery commissioner, the £1,800 per pupil in
the US and the £2,100 per pupil in the Netherlands. It is no
wonder that Sir Kevan resigned in protest. This meagre package
will also compound the damage done by a decade of cuts in school
spending. Even with the money announced in the spending review,
the IFS says that per-pupil funding remains lower than a decade
ago, and the broken national funding formula will see the least
deprived schools receiving more money than the most deprived, to
the tune of almost 5% by 2023. Despite rehashed announcements
this week on levelling up that were big on rhetoric but low on
practical delivery, the bottom line is that this Government will
continue to hollow out areas of historical deprivation when it
comes to education funding and recovery.
Meanwhile, the Government’s flagship national tutoring programme
is failing children and failing taxpayers. Recent figures show
that the scheme has reached less than 10% of those due to receive
support in this academic year. The Government’s contractor is
unable to say whether it is hitting targets to engage children
receiving the pupil premium who are most in need of support.
There have also been huge problems with the tuition partners’
online platform, frustrating engagement for many schools. Three
quarters of tutoring providers surveyed recently said they felt
that it did not have sufficient resources to deliver the scheme.
Will the Minister therefore commit today to publishing
information on the reach of the programme by region and among
those who had the most time out of school? Will he also say what
he will do to work with schools to address the problems that are
preventing engagement?
I want to turn now to mental health, which has long been a silent
pandemic. Even before covid, the NHS suggested that as many as
one in six five to 10-year-olds suffered from mental ill health.
The Royal College of Psychiatrists claims that 2020 saw the
highest ever number of young people referred for mental health
help. The poorest 20% of households are now four times more
likely than the wealthiest 20% to have a serious mental health
problem by age 11. CAMHS have been systematically cut in the last
decade and interventions have been forced to move away from
preventive work to crisis response. Once again, however,
Ministers have ducked another generational change. The recent
funding for mental health support teams will cover just 35% of
schools by 2023. This is not nearly ambitious enough to meet the
heightened demand or to counteract a decade of underinvestment in
children’s mental health. Barnardo’s and others have been clear
that there should be a dedicated mental health support team in
every school, and Labour agrees.
After 21 months and four waves, this Government are still
fundamentally unable to combat the impact that this pandemic is
having on our children. The Government response has meant that
disruption and uncertainty have become an exhausting normality
for teachers, school staff, pupils and parents. That cannot
continue. As we learn to live with covid, education recovery
presents a historic challenge and we must rise to it. Labour
wants to harness the opportunity that this watershed moment
provides to tackle long-standing inequalities. Our children’s
recovery plan would support our country’s children to play, learn
and thrive together once again. Our clear, costed proposals are
an ambitious plan that would deliver school activities and
breakfast clubs, quality mental health support to every child and
every school, and small group tutoring for all those who need it,
as well as making a real investment in our teachers.
Schools continue to battle covid in classrooms as we speak.
Meanwhile, the consequences of learning loss loom larger with
every passing day. Time and again, the Government have
demonstrated that they are fundamentally unable to plan for or
mitigate the impact of covid on our children’s education. The
summit of Ministers’ ambition for education recovery falls well
below what our children need and deserve.
The Government are paralysed by the Prime Minister’s repeated
scandals, and while they dither, inequalities widen. Without
further intervention, the damage of the pandemic will become
irreversible and the impact will plague children, the education
system and the wider economy for decades to come. Every day this
Government waste is another our children will not get back. If
Ministers will not step up for our nation’s children, the next
Labour Government certainly will.
3.20pm
The Minister for School Standards ( )
I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Harlow () on securing this debate on a
hugely important subject. We have heard fantastic speeches from
across the House. I recognise that I will not necessarily have
the time to respond to every point that has been raised, but I
wholeheartedly agree with the right hon. Member for Newcastle
upon Tyne East (Mr Brown) that this is a vital topic in all our
constituencies.
It is right that this debate cover both education and wellbeing
recovery, as we know they are parts of the same thing. Recovery
is a key priority for me, as it is for the Government, and a key
part of building back better, levelling up and ensuring that we
are ready and skilled for a future in which the next generation
can prosper.
Many hon. Members have spoken about the ambition that we should
do all it takes to ensure our children recover from the impact of
the pandemic. I say clearly that I recognise that the education
sector continues to face challenges caused by covid. Like so many
colleagues in this debate, I thank everyone who works in early
years provision, schools and colleges for their ongoing
dedication to keeping education and childcare settings operating
and supporting children and young people in this vital
period.
The best place for young children to be, for their education,
mental health and wellbeing, is in the classroom. That is why
protecting face-to-face education continues to be our absolute
priority. I know that children and young people in particular
have had to adapt to the challenges presented by the covid-19
pandemic. My right hon. Friend the Member for Harlow, in his
introductory speech, mentioned the importance of mental health
resilience. Many children have shown and are showing remarkable
resilience in difficult circumstances, but some have found this
period especially difficult for their mental health and
wellbeing, so tackling that is one of our key priorities.
Education plays a huge role in the lives of children and young
people, and it is also a crucial contributor to wellbeing, as we
heard from the children’s commissioner. That is one reason why
protecting face-to-face education is so important: it can help to
combat the understandable underlying anxieties that children have
about their life, future and friendships. It is also why we have
made clear that the recovery support that schools, colleges and
other educational settings provide for their pupils should
include time devoted to supporting wellbeing.
We are supporting schools to prioritise attendance and providing
extra teaching where needed, to ensure that pupils stay on track
with their wider learning and development. However, we must also
ensure that schools understand the pandemic’s impact on
children’s ability to engage in learning, so that they can adapt
their curriculum and pastoral support to help pupils to stay
engaged.
I have heard from a number of hon. Friends in this debate,
including my hon. Friend the Member for Bolsover (), about the importance of
behaviour. To keep pupils engaged in education, it is crucial
that we ensure that schools can offer calm, orderly, safe and
supportive environments where both pupils and staff can thrive.
Disorderly classrooms not only have an impact on children’s
ability to learn, but can equally affect their mental health and
cause some children to stay away from school, missing vital
learning time.
We also know that dealing with misbehaviour can be stressful for
teachers, and too many teachers have left the profession because
of such problems. I want to ensure that teachers and schools have
the best strategies and techniques at their disposal. That is why
I am today launching a consultation on how schools can create a
culture of good behaviour, to inform revised behaviour guidance,
which will provide practical advice for all school staff on
creating positive environments through consistent routines and
high expectations.
I have seen on many visits to schools the difference that a
strong behaviour culture can make, particularly for some of the
most disadvantaged children and those with SEN. Schools and
colleges must also be able to respond where children are facing
specific issues and may need more expert support. We remain
committed to promoting and supporting mental health and wellbeing
in our schools and colleges. Our recent £15 million wellbeing for
education recovery and return programmes have provided free
expert training, support and resources for staff dealing with
children and young people experiencing additional pressures from
covid-19. Around 12,000 schools and colleges across the country
benefited from that support, delivered through local
authorities.
We are also taking action to help schools to build their capacity
to promote the mental health and wellbeing of children and young
people, and their ability to ensure that those who need help with
their mental health receive appropriate support. The Government
are providing £9.5 million to offer senior mental health lead
training to around a third of all state schools and colleges in
England in ’21-22. This is part of the commitment we made in our
2017 Green Paper “Transforming children and young people’s mental
health provision” to offer that training to all state schools and
colleges by 2025. We know many senior mental health leads have
already started their training, which will enable them to start
to apply their learning this academic year. That will help them
build on the incredible work they and their colleagues have done
throughout the pandemic to promote and support the wellbeing of
pupils.
Throughout the pandemic the Government have put in place a wide
range of specialist mental health support for people of all ages
who need it. For children and young people we have ensured NHS
mental health services remained open throughout the pandemic,
offering digital and remote access as well as face-to-face
support where appropriate to maintain care and accept new
referrals.
In the longer term, we are expanding and transforming mental
health services through the NHS long-term plan with additional
investment of £2.3 billion per year by ’23-24. This will allow at
least 345,000 more children and young people to access NHS funded
mental health support. I very much take the points of the right
hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne East (Mr Brown) on earlier
interventions and will continue to discuss that with health
colleagues.
In addition, as part of the Government commitment to build back
better, in March 2021 the Department of Health and Social Care
published our mental health recovery action plan, backed by an
additional £500 million of targeted investment to ensure we have
the right support in place for this financial year, including £79
million used to significantly expand children’s mental health
services in the financial year. My hon. Friend the Member for
Meon Valley (Mrs Drummond) and others highlighted the important
role of the mental health support teams in schools and colleges,
which is stepping up over this period.
We all know that covid-19 has caused considerable disruption to
the education of our nation’s children and young people. Evidence
shows that while this has been significant for all children, it
has been especially so for the disadvantaged and those with the
least amount of time left in education. That is why nearly £5
billion has been committed to fund a comprehensive recovery
package, following the evidence and providing support to all
pupils while prioritising the most disadvantaged and vulnerable
and those with least time left.
Our approach provides a mix of immediate and longer-term support,
funding those interventions the evidence tells us will be the
most effective. Universal programmes such as the £650 million
catch-up premium in ’20- 21 and teacher training opportunities
will support all pupils no matter where they live. They sit
alongside targeted interventions, focusing on those most in need
through our targeted tutoring programme, summer schools and the
recovery premium, extended in the spending review by £1 billion
for the next two academic years. It is right that we prioritise
those with the least time left in education: from September 2022
funded learning over the next three academic years will also
increase by 40 hours a year, giving every 16-to-19 student the
equivalent of an extra hour a week.
Extensive evidence shows that tutoring can be one of the most
effective tools to support learning and accelerate pupil
progress. That is why we are investing £1.5 billion in tutoring
to provide up to 100 million tutoring hours for children and
young people across England by 2024. Building on the success of
the programme’s first year, more than 300,000 tuition courses
began last term: a good start to delivering our ambitious target
of 2 million courses this academic year.
An estimated 230,000 tuition courses have been started through
the school-led pillar, demonstrating that providing greater
flexibility to schools to deliver tutoring is helping us reach as
many young people as possible. I have seen fantastic examples of
that up and down the country, where academic mentors and
school-led tutors are delivering real benefits. I welcome the
feedback from the hon. Member for Richmond Park () on the impact in her
patch.
We have set high standards for the programme and feedback from
schools shows the positive impact it is having in helping pupils
catch up. In the first national tutoring programme satisfaction
survey of this academic year, 77% of responding schools said the
programme was having a positive impact on pupils’ attainment and
80% said it was having a positive impact on pupils’
confidence.
Although we are making good progress, I recognise that the
programme needs to pick up more steam. We are closely monitoring
the performance of the programme and its delivery organisation,
Randstad, with daily and weekly operational reviews and regular
meetings at senior level. A number of improvements have been made
since September; for example, tuition partners identified a
number of areas to improve the way they work with schools through
the tuition hub digital platform, but I recognise there is
further to go.
I cannot say everything I would like to say in this debate, but
what I can say is that delivering on educational recovery is
absolutely crucial and we will continue to work, taking the
feedback from across the House in this excellent debate
today.
3.29pm
I thank all the Members who spoke in the debate, particularly the
right hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne East (Mr Brown), who is
leading on children’s mental health. His work is really
important. My hon. Friend the Member for Bolsover () also talked about mental
health and the longer school day.
The hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden () addressed the digital
divide, which we have still got to work on. My hon. Friend the
Member for Meon Valley (Mrs Drummond) rightly said that we should
better prepare and equip people for the world of work. We agree
on a lot and she also supports a longer school day.
The hon. Member for Stretford and Urmston (), who was passionate in her
previous role as shadow Education Secretary, talked about early
years and also supported a longer school day, which is very
welcome.
My hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent North () talked about the extended
school day. He supports grammar schools. I am in favour of them,
but it is wrong that only 3% of pupils on free school meals
attend grammar schools. That has got to change.
The hon. Member for Richmond Park () also talked about mental
health, showing the breadth of concern across the House. The hon.
Member for Strangford () spoke movingly about school closures.
Clearly, there is a consensus across the House for the Government
to do more on mental health and more on the catch-up programme
and to support a longer school day. Finally, I say to my hon.
Friend the Minister that Randstad has got to sort it out or he
has got to boot them out. It is not acceptable that all that
taxpayers’ money is being spent on that huge company, which is
not providing the catch-up and the tuition that our children
vitally need.
Question put and agreed to.
Resolved,
That this House has considered the effectiveness of the
Government’s education catch-up and mental health recovery
programmes.
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