Nadhim Zahawi MP took education questions in the House of Commons on Monday, prior to this week’s cabinet reshuffle. It was likewise Will Quince MP’s last department questions, following his resignation from the DfE ministerial team.
Shadow Secretary of State for Education, Bridget Phillipson MP, asked about the removal of 18 of 69 clauses from the Schools Bill. These clauses related to government regulation of academies. Zahawi responded by saying that he had always promised a review of these clauses.
Bridget Phillipson also asked about the rising cost of care and proposals to allow nurseries to look after more children. She said that Labour had set out in its children’s recovery plan to tackle this, and provide immediate support to families. Zahawi said that the DfE proposals were not simply about the ratios of staff to children in nurseries, but also about growing the childminder market, and ensuring that parents who are eligible for tax-free childcare make that claim.
North East MPs Mary Kelly Foy (City of Durham) and Grahame Morris (Easington) both asked what steps the government was taking to ensure that the SEND review supports disabled children.
Minister for Children, Will Quince, responded. He set out the aims of the Green Paper, to ensure that the right support is delivered in the right setting at the right time for all children and young people with SEND, which would be achieved through nationally consistent SEND standards across education, health, and care. He also mentioned that they are still consulting on the proposals, and that they genuinely did want to hear the views of the sector.
In May, as part of the SEND review consultation, civil servants from DfE’s SEND review division attended a Schools North East Special and Alternative Provision school leaders roundtable. You can read what was discussed at this roundtable at the following link. This week the National Network of Special Schools for School Business Professionals (NNoSS), facilitated by Schools North East, also contributed to the consultation through a virtual roundtable with Benedict Coffin, SEND Policy Unit, focusing on SEND funding.
South Shields MP, Emma Lewell-Buck, asked about free school meals (FSM). She asked why FSM eligibility criteria wasn’t being extended to all families on universal credit. Will Quince said that under the current Government, eligibility had been extended to more groups of children than under any other over the past half century.
Along with the North East Child Poverty Commission, Children North East, and the Child Poverty Action Group, we wrote to ministers, calling on the government to introduce automatic registration for FSM, and restoring previous FSM eligibility thresholds.
With the new ministerial team in place, Schools North East will continue to lobby on these key issues affecting schools in our region.
