In January 2016, 939 of 9,413 pupils (10.0%) in primary schools in Ashfield constituency were identified with special educational needs (SEN). These pupils will have either a learning difficulty or a disability which requires educational provision which is additional to, or different from, that made generally for others of the same age. It includes both those pupils benefiting from a statutory plan (either a Statement of SEN or an Education, Health and Care plan) and those in receipt of SEN Support. All of those identified with SEN are provided with additional help in school (special educational provision), but data is not available on the numbers in receipt of additional funding that is provided by the local authority and the numbers who receive their support through the school budget.

At the age of school entry, most children will have a hearing test and an eye test. The tests may be conducted at school but can be carried out elsewhere depending upon the arrangements in the local area.

The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) advises Ministers and the National Health Service about all aspects of screening policy and supports implementation. Using research evidence, pilot programmes and economic evaluation, it assesses the evidence for programmes against a set of internationally recognised criteria.

In November 2013 the UK NSC re-affirmed its recommendation that child vision screening between four and five years of age should be offered by an orthoptic-led service. Public Health England is working to improve the quality and consistency of current vision screening services across the UK.

The number of nurses and nursery nurses reported by local authority maintained nursery and state-funded primary schools in November 2015 and 2010 is provided in the table below. The source of this information is the School Workforce Census, which is an annual survey collected in November of each year.

Source: School Workforce Census

[1] Some local authority maintained primary schools include nursery settings.

[2] Includes secondary schools, special schools, pupil referral units and local authority centrally employed school staff.

[3] Figures are rounded to the nearest 10 and figures less than 10 have been suppressed.

The Pupil Premium was introduced in 2011 to provide additional resources to mainstream schools to improve the attainment of disadvantaged pupils aged 5-16. The Government has committed to maintaining the Pupil Premium at current per-pupil rates for the remainder of this parliament. As a separate grant to schools, the Pupil Premium will not be affected by the introduction of a national funding formula.

We recently announced that the new national funding formulae for schools and high needs will apply from 2018-19. We are determined to introduce this landmark reform and to get it right. It is important that there is wide and full consultation with schools and the education sector. We will bring forward proposals for full consultation in the autumn and we will work closely with the education sector over the coming months to understand their views and priorities for the national funding formula.

The written Ministerial statement from the Secretary of State for Education is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/schools-funding

Funding for education is a priority for the Government. At the Spending Review last November, the Chancellor protected the core schools budget in real terms, enabling a per-pupil protection for the dedicated schools grant. Throughout this Parliament the money available for our schools will increase as pupil numbers rise.

We recognise that schools are facing increased costs as a result of changes to employer pension and national insurance contributions. We believe that the best way to help schools is through the introduction of a national funding formula.

A national funding formula will do more to put all schools on a level playing field, where funding is matched to need. It will also make it easier for head teachers, governing bodies and local authorities to compare their spending and outcomes with other schools.

Maintained schools and academies are paid by reference to different financial years, which are not contiguous with academic years for maintained schools. Consequently funding figures for the academic year 2016/17 are not published. The table below shows that funding increased for Nottinghamshire primary schools and academies by £7.03m, and for secondary schools and academies by £0.62m between financial years 2015-16 and 2016-17.

Note: There is also a single ‘All Through’ provider that is not included in these figures.

Information about the number of pupils in key stage 1 classes with more than 30 pupils is available at school level in the underlying data of the ‘schools, pupils and their characteristics’ statistics[1].

Information on class sizes for the academic year beginning September 2015 is not yet available and is due to be released in June 2016.

The following table shows the number of pupils in key stage 1 classes with more than 30 pupils in schools in Ashfield constituency and Nottinghamshire local authority for the academic years beginning in September 2013 and 2014.

There were no pupils in key stage 1 classes of more than 35 in either Ashfield or Nottinghamshire in January 2014 or January 2015.

[1] Data from January 2014 is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2014 in the file called ‘SFR15_2014_school_level_classes_UD’ within the underlying data download.

Data from January 2015 is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2015 in the file called ‘SFR16_2015_Schools_Classes_UD’ within the underlying data download.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

The department does not provide any additional funding to local authorities in the financial year that a new secondary school is established.

We do provide funding to academy trusts to cover essential expenditure to establish a new school before it opens. New schools receive funding for a limited number of years after the school opens to cover the start-up costs associated with running a new school which cannot be met from core funding. Details of these grants can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/487778/Free_Schools_application_process_-_background_information_and_glossary.pdf

Where a local authority opens a new school (to meet basic need in that area), the local authority is responsible for providing the site for the new school and meeting associated capital and start-up costs, which it is expected to do from its Dedicated Schools Grant allocation and its basic need capital allocation.