Vicky Ford: The government has made children’s wellbeing and mental health a central part of our response to the COVID-19 outbreak, and the support we have already put in place for children and young people will be critical during this time. The department has issued guidance for schools which includes information and sources of further advice on supporting mental health and wellbeing, available here:...
Vicky Ford: The government is investing over £400 million to support access to remote education and online social care services, including securing 1.3 million laptops and tablets for disadvantaged children and young people. This includes over 700,000 laptops and tablets that were delivered to schools, academy trusts and local authorities by 11 January. We have published the latest data...
Vicky Ford: Ensuring the safety of children, the workforce and families is our overriding priority. Early years settings remain low risk environments for children and staff. Current evidence suggests that pre-school children (0 to 5 years) are less susceptible to infection and are unlikely to be playing a driving role in transmission. There is no evidence the new strain of the virus causes more serious...
Vicky Ford: ...to the early years sector by continuing to fund the free childcare entitlements, making grants and loans available and ensuring early years providers can access the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme for their non-government funded income, and childminders the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme. While we recognise childcare attendance has been affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, we saw...
Vicky Ford: ...assessment of reading in 2016. There has been a 9-percentage point rise in key stage 2 maths results since new tests were introduced in 2016, and a significant improvement in maths scores for 15 year olds in the latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) international test results, driven by a decrease in the number of low attainers. Results from the Trends in...
Vicky Ford: ...COVID-19 outbreak so that young children can be educated, and parents can work. The earliest years are the most crucial point of child development and attending early education lays the foundation for lifelong learning and supports children’s social and emotional development. We continue to prioritise keeping early years settings open in full because of the clear benefits to children’s...
Vicky Ford: ...to the early years sector by continuing to fund the free childcare entitlements, making grants and loans available, ensuring early years providers can access the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme for their non-government funded income and ensuring that childminders can access the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme. While we recognise that childcare attendance has been affected by the...
Vicky Ford: ...groups will have been hardest hit. To address the impacts of COVID-19 disruption, we have launched a £650 million universal catch-up premium, and a £350 million National Tutoring Programme (NTP) for disadvantaged pupils. The NTP went live on 2 November 2020, and schools are now able to access tuition to support disadvantaged pupils that needed the most help to catch up. Understanding...
Vicky Ford: Ensuring continued access to support services and education for vulnerable children and young people remains a priority for the government. As such we have ensured that essential youth services, such as one-to-one youth work and support groups, are able to continue for the duration of the national lockdown, and that vulnerable children can continue to access childcare and other out-of-school...
Vicky Ford: ...restrictions, special schools and special post-16 settings should continue to welcome and encourage pupils to attend full-time (or as per their usual timetable) where parents and carers wishes for their child to be able to attend (or for post-16s, where the young person wishes to attend). This is because we know that children and young people with special educational needs and...
Vicky Ford: Until the end of the summer term, schools could continue to make payments to suppliers under the provisions of the Cabinet Office guidance for public bodies in ‘Procurement Policy Note 02/20’ and ‘Procurement Policy Note 04/20’ if they considered it appropriate in order to maintain delivery of critical services. These are available here:...
Vicky Ford: ...-91ca-4269-8ef5-72891b3f3216. To understand the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, wave two of the Survey of Childcare and Early Years Providers and COVID-19 assessed attendance in September/October for open school-based providers, open group-based providers, and open childminders. Attendance during the survey was compared to the expected attendance for a typical autumn term. The survey...
Vicky Ford: This is a matter for Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman. I have asked her to write to the hon. Member and a copy of her reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much an army sergeant has been paid on average in each year from 2005 to 2020 in real terms; and if paid on a scale, what the range of that scale was.
Vicky Foxcroft: Last week, I finally received the answer to a written parliamentary question that I tabled on 22 September asking for an update on the serious violence taskforce. The response stated that the taskforce is being discontinued, but I can find no statement from Home Office Ministers to that effect. Does the Leader of the House agree that the delay is unacceptable, and will he please ensure that...
Stewart Hosie: The Secretary of State was copied in to a letter to the Business Secretary from Vicky Leigh-Pearson, the sales director at John Ross Jr, Aberdeen, salmon producers and exporters. It described in excoriating detail the “barrage of useless information” on Brexit, which added no value or clarity for such food and drink exporting businesses. Would it not be better to fix the problems at the...
Vicky Ford: ...sector and provide valuable services, especially in disadvantaged areas. As part of the recent Spending Review, the government has confirmed a continuation of around £60m of supplementary funding for maintained nursery schools (MSN) in the financial year 2021-22. This includes £23 million of supplementary funding that the government confirmed in August will be provided to local...
Vicky Ford: ...young person’s wishes and that they are assured that the setting the young person is moving into is safe in relation to risk factors arising from coronavirus (COVID-19). This guidance is still in force. We have provided £4.6 billion additional funding to local authorities to meet the extra demands placed on them due to the COVID-19 outbreak, including the costs of extending placements...
Vicky Ford: Early years settings remain low risk environments for children and staff. Current evidence suggests that pre-school children (0 to less than 5 years) are less susceptible to infection and are unlikely to be playing a driving role in transmission. There is no evidence that the new strain of COVID-19 causes more serious illness in either children or adults, or that it disproportionately affects...
Vicky Ford: Rapid, regular testing for people without symptoms of COVID-19 will be made available across the country from this week, with the eligibility of the community testing programme expanded to cover all 317 local authorities. Local authorities will be encouraged to target testing at critical workers such as early years staff during the national lockdown. We are rolling out our asymptomatic...