School Leaving
Graham Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what steps he is taking to ensure that there are sufficient school places in response to Raising the Participation Age. [170288]
Mr Laws: The Government have made £7.4 billion available in 2013-14 to fund a place for every 16 to 19-year-old who wants to stay in education, training or an apprenticeship. Local authorities are responsible for ensuring that there are sufficient, suitable places to meet demand. Under the ‘September Guarantee’ they track offers made to 16 and 17-year-olds so that they can identify any young person who is not able to find a suitable place and address any emerging gaps in provision with the Education Funding Agency (EFA).
In cases where gaps are identified, the EFA will either fill those places through negotiation with providers or it will run a competitive tender. EFA currently has no live bids from local authorities in England seeking to fill gaps in provision.
Education and training institutions are expected to respond to demand from young people by taking on additional students during the year where they have the capacity; they will be funded for this through established funding arrangements.
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Graham Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many young people required to stay in education, training or apprenticeships under Raising the Participation Age have been unable to find places in (a) education, (b) training and (c) apprenticeships to date. [170289]
Matthew Hancock: Local authorities are required to inform the Department by the end of October how many young people did not receive an offer because they could not find a place. Information on the proportion of young people who did not receive an offer will be made available on the Department's website in January 2014.
Graham Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many local authorities have been unable to provide sufficient school placements to meet increased demand under Raising the Participation Age. [170290]
Mr Laws: Local authorities are required to inform the Department by the end of October how many young people did not receive an offer because they could not find a place. Information on the proportion of young people who did not receive an offer will be made available on the Department's website in January 2014.
Schools: Admissions
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will issue further information on the membership of the working group on admissions; and how it will be monitoring the issue. [170085]
Mr Laws: The Admissions Framework Steering Group comprises officials from the Department and representatives of local authorities, schools, school governors, faith bodies and other organisations with an interest in school admissions.
We will consult this steering group during the forthcoming admission round for 2014 to help us monitor the extent to which admissions authorities have been able to meet parents' requests on behalf of summer-born children for admission to a particular year group.
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what plans his Department has to monitor the effect of new advice issued on school starting age. [170086]
Mr Laws: The advice on school starting age for summer-born children was published on 29 July 20131 to inform the allocation of school places for 2014.
We are confident that the advice we have published will mean admission authorities and parents gain a better understanding of the statutory framework within which decisions are made and removes the misunderstanding which appears to be getting in the way of admission authorities agreeing to parental requests.
We will continue to look at all cases that come to our attention via groups like Bliss (the charity for premature babies) or the Admissions Framework Steering Group and assess whether further action is needed to ensure that admission authorities take full account of the
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advice when considering parental requests to vary the school starting age for summer-born children.
1 http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/a/advice_summer _born_children.pdf
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what plans his Department has to monitor complaints made by parents regarding the school starting age; and how the complaints will be followed up. [170087]
Mr Laws: The Department logs the issues raised by parents and other groups through correspondence and objections to the Schools Adjudicator, who reports on such issues to the Secretary of State for Education. Following recent complaints about the difficulties faced by summer-born children in the admissions process, the Department worked with Bliss (the charity for premature babies) and a small group of parents to produce the advice on the admission of summer-born children that was published on 29 July 20131. We expect this advice will inform the allocation and offer of school places for 2014.
We will continue to monitor correspondence on this issue and to work with Bliss and our Admissions Framework Steering Group to assess the impact of the advice and decide whether the nature of future complaints warrants further action from the Department.
1 http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/a/advice_ summer_born_children.pdf
Schools: Attendance
Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what representations he has received on the statutory guidance and departmental advice on school attendance published in August 2013. [170033]
Elizabeth Truss: The revisions to statutory guidance and departmental advice on school attendance in August 2013 were made to reflect new regulations on leave of absence in schools and timescales for paying penalty notices. The Department has not received representations specific to these revisions to the statutory guidance and departmental advice.
Schools: Playing Fields
Mr Raab: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what rules govern the expansion of schools to prevent the loss of sporting and play facilities. [170092]
Mr Laws: Prior to 2012, no protection existed to prevent schools putting school buildings on playing fields. Schools could build over playing fields with impunity without seeking consent. This led to the disappearance of thousands of playing fields—Fields in Trust (formerly The National Playing Field Association) estimated 2,540 playing fields, or 26 sites a month, were lost between 1997 and 2005. This Government have introduced protection for playing fields where there was none before. Schools and local authorities now have to seek permission if they want to change the use of public playing fields by putting school buildings on them. We now require schools to apply for consent even where the buildings are being used for education or recreational purposes.
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When considering applications to place school buildings on playing fields we take into account the amount of playing field space a school will be left with after the building work, whether there will be any impact on sport and play and the reason for the proposed change.
Schools: Private Finance Initiative
Mr Blunkett: To ask the Secretary of State for Education when he plans to transfer the cost of historic private finance initiative deals to those schools that have opted out of their local authority arrangements to become academies or free schools. [169777]
Mr Laws: Schools that become academies remain part of local private finance deals. The contract remains between the local authority and the private finance contractor; the academy pays the local authority its share of the cost of the deal under an agreement made at the time of conversion. The Government have no plans to change these arrangements.
Sixth Form Colleges: Insurance
Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what assessment his Department has made of the effect of sixth form colleges funding their own insurance compared to academies. [170138]
Mr Laws: There are no extra funding elements for insurance in the funding formula for education of 16 to 19-year-olds for any institution, including academies. Local authorities often arrange insurance for the schools they maintain, with the consent of those schools through the schools forum. Academies, as individual institutions, have to arrange their own insurance cover. That is why we have included an element for insurance in the pre-16 funding allocations for academies, to assist them with those costs. Academies are not given any extra funding for insurance in the funding they receive for their 16 to 19-year-old students.
Special Guardianship Orders
Stephen Gilbert: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many special guardians were registered in England in each of the last eight years. [170072]
Mr Timpson: The Department for Education does not hold information on the number of special guardians in England.
The number of looked after children in England who ceased to be looked after due to having a special guardianship order made is available as part of the annual Children Looked After Statistical First Release1.
1 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption
Stephen Gilbert: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many special guardians were registered in each local authority in England in each of the last eight years. [170073]
Mr Timpson: The Department for Education does not hold information on the number of special guardians in England.
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The number of looked after children in England who ceased to be looked after due to having a special guardianship order made is available as part of the annual Children Looked After Statistical First Release1.
1 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption
Truancy
Andy McDonald: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what steps he is taking to improve the ability of schools to track pupils obliged to be in full-time education. [170300]
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Elizabeth Truss: The Government have lowered the threshold for classifying pupils as persistently absent from 20% to 15% of missed school time, to enable schools to identify patterns of poor attendance earlier and to act to address it.
All schools are required to inform the relevant local authority at agreed regular intervals of the name and address of pupils who fail to attend school regularly or have been continuously absent from school for 10 school days or more without the school's permission.