We are investing £26 million from the Soft Drinks Industry Levy over the next three years to expand breakfast club provision, to be split as follows: £1 million in 2017-18, £12.5 million in 2018-19, and £12.5 million in 2019-20.

We will spend £22 million from the Soft Drinks Industry Levy on the Essential Life Skills programme, with a provisional split as follows: £8 million in 2017-18 and £14 million in 2018-19.

The remaining funds will be spent on relevant projects in the spending review period.

The role and remit of the Social Mobility Commission is set out in legislation. There are no current plans to change the functions of the Commission and we intend to begin the public appointments process for a new Chair and Commissioners in due course.

The Department for Education is fully committed to the work of the Social Mobility Commission. We value the wide-ranging work carried out by the Commission, including its research programme, its State of the Nation annual reports, and both the Social Mobility Index and the Social Mobility Employer Index.

The government has previously allocated the following funding to the Commission:

• £600,000 in 2015-6.
• £589,000 in 2016-7.
• £610,000 in 2017-8.

Future funding allocations have not yet been agreed and will be decided by the Department for Education, in consultation with the Commission, at the appropriate time. This is in accordance with normal procedures for non-departmental public bodies.

The Department for Education is fully committed to the work of the Social Mobility Commission. We plan to begin the public appointments process for a new chair and commissioners in due course. This is a public appointment, and the process will be completed following the procedures set out in the Public Appointments guidance.

We welcome the Social Mobility Commission’s State of the Nation annual reports. They are wide-ranging, valuable pieces of work that support this government’s commitment to social mobility.

The Commission’s analysis has been an important input to the department’s work on social mobility.

We are investing £72 million in 12 Opportunity Areas in order to focus effort on areas of the country with the greatest challenges and fewest opportunities. All 12 of these were social mobility coldspots identified by the Commission in its Social Mobility Index published in 2016.

Social mobility is the department’s priority and we are making good progress across a range of areas. We will be spending around £6 billion per year on childcare and early education support by 2019-20. The attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers has narrowed since we introduced the Pupil Premium – now worth around £2.5 billion per year - in 2011. Young pupils from disadvantaged areas are now also entering universities at record rates.

I am sorry, but the information is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

I am unable to reveal the names of academies awaiting transfer to another trust. We are committed to transparency, but this should not undermine the process of rebrokering by exacerbating any uncertainty. Where transfers do happen, these are announced as soon as possible and when appropriate, so that transfers can happen smoothly and in the best interests of pupils.

Budget 2016 announced funding for a number of programmes linked to the revenue from the Soft Drinks Industry Levy.

• Funding for the Primary PE and Sport Premium has been doubled to £320 million for academic year 2017/18. Funding for the premium is paid in academic years, with 7/12ths of the funding paid in the autumn term and the remaining 5/12ths in the summer term. In financial year 2017-18 £95 million will be provided from the soft drinks industry levy.

• We published an invitation to tender on the 16 October 2017 indicating that we are investing £26 million from the levy over the next three years to expand breakfast club provision. The expectation is that £1 million funding will be provided in 2017-18 to the breakfast club programme.

• We announced in February 2017 the healthy pupils’ capital programme will build on the government’s plans for schools to provide a longer school day by changing the focus of the scheme to provide new facilities or improve existing ones to make it easier for a range of extra-curricular activities to be provided. Funding for the healthy pupils capital fund will be provided in 2018-19.

£100 million of funding from the soft drinks industry levy in 2018-19 will be provided for the healthy pupils’ capital fund. This funding will be made available to improve school facilities to support a range of healthy pupils activities, including PE and sports, after school activities and healthy eating.

The contract is worth up to a total value of £26 million, inclusive of VAT. The aim is to split this over each financial year as follows: £1 million in 2017-18, up to £12.5 million in 2018-19 and up to £12.5 million in 2019-20, commencing in January 2018 and ending 31 March 2020. This money will kick-start or improve breakfast clubs in at least 1,500 schools and support innovation projects.

Average pupil attendance at breakfast clubs aims to meet the target of 25% of pupils on roll in primary and secondary schools; 60% of pupils on roll in special schools and PRUs; and reflect the demographic spread of pupils at a school. This is subject to the award of the contract and the appointment of the supplier. The invitation to tender was published on the 16 October 2017.

The contract is worth up to a total value of £26 million, inclusive of VAT. The aim is to split this over each financial year as follows: £1 million in 2017-18, up to £12.5 million in 2018-19 and up to £12.5 million in 2019-20, commencing in January 2018 and ending 31 March 2020. This money will kick-start or improve breakfast clubs in at least 1,500 schools and support innovation projects.

Average pupil attendance at breakfast clubs aims to meet the target of 25% of pupils on roll in primary and secondary schools; 60% of pupils on roll in special schools and PRUs; and reflect the demographic spread of pupils at a school. This is subject to the award of the contract and the appointment of the supplier. The invitation to tender was published on the 16 October 2017.

None of the schools in the Wakefield City Academies Trust have yet been transferred to new trusts. The department have provisionally identified new trusts for all of the schools to join, and have invited interested groups to share views by 12 November. We are working to transfer all of the schools to new trusts within the current academic year.

We are working to ensure we get a solution in place as quickly as possible for the pupils and the parents who are currently living with uncertainty around the future of their respective schools.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) routinely visits academy trusts to assess their financial management and governance arrangements; this includes multi-academy trust reviews. We do not routinely publish these assurance reports. All Regional Schools Commissioners (RSCs) monitor the performance of their schools on an ongoing basis, and where they have concerns, will work with trusts to find solutions. Following a disappointing set of results in 2016, RSCs became concerned about the Trust.

The ESFA undertook such a review of Wakefield City Academies Trust (WCAT) between June and September 2015 and made a follow-up visit in July 2016. We do not intend to publish the ESFA report into WCAT, as this could be obstructive to the process of ensuring that all the schools are transferred to new trusts that will be able to provide an excellent education for children.

Like all multi-academy trusts, WCAT publishes its annual report and financial statements online found here: http://www.wcatrust.org/key-documentation/.

All open free schools have a funding agreement which sets out the circumstances in which that agreement may be terminated and the school may close. The department’s model funding agreements are published on GOV.UK at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/academy-and-free-school-funding-agreements-single-academy-trust.

In addition, following the Education and Adoption Act 2016, the Secretary of State has powers to terminate a school’s funding agreement if it is judged inadequate by Ofsted – regardless of the terms of the individual school’s funding agreement. These powers are set out in the ‘Schools Causing Concern’ guidance:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/640916/SCC_guidance.pdf.

Advice to academy trusts on what they need to do to make a significant change, including a merger, is published on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/504321/Making_significant_changes_to_an_open_academy.pdf.

An assessment of proposals to make a significant change will be made before the Regional Schools Commissioner or the Secretary of State, as appropriate, makes a final decision.

Where concern is identified, the Education and Skills Funding Agency will respond proportionately to the severity of the risk, taking into account the scale and nature of the issue and any local circumstances. Where there are significant concerns about financial management and/or concerns about governance in an academy trust (including a multi-academy trust or constituent academies within a multi-academy trust) it may issue, and publish, a Financial Notice to Improve (FNtI). The trust must comply with all the terms of an FNtI. Failure to comply will be deemed a breach of the funding agreement by virtue of the relationship between the funding agreement and the Academies Financial Handbook. In exceptional circumstances, the funding agreement may be terminated due to non-compliance with the terms of the FNtI.

We are considering a range of approaches on the number of graduates in the workforce and addressing disadvantage through the early years’ sector. This work is still underway. We continue to support graduates into the sector through our funding of the Early Years Initial Teacher Training programme, including bursaries and employer incentives. As set out in the early years workforce strategy we also will review early years initial teacher training routes to ensure we are maximising the impact of the programme.

I refer the hon. Member for Ashton-under-Lyne to the answer I gave on 24 October 2017, to question 108272

(http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-questions-answers/?page=1&max=20&questiontype=AllQuestions&house=commons%2clords&uin=108272)

My department is working to establish new criteria for determining entitlement to benefits-related FSM as the roll-out of Universal Credit progresses. No decision has been taken yet, and our proposals on this matter will be announced in due course.

As set out in the Department for Education’s Main Estimates Memo, the financial control total for Annually Managed Expenditure (AME) in 2018-19 is £15,482,932m and the financial control total for AME in 2019-20 is £17,970,472m.

These control totals are set on the basis of current government policy and are underpinned by AME forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility. The department’s control totals for AME are adjusted for any policy changes based on policy costings scrutinised by the Office for Budget Responsibility at fiscal events.

Discussions with families and staff are usually carried out at Trust level. In this instance, we have invited interested groups, including families, to share their views with the Department for Education before 12 November by contacting academies.rebrokerage@education.gov.uk. Department officials are in the process of responding to those representations.

In addition, all of the provisionally identified trusts have been engaging with parents and staff at all 21 schools during this period.

Accountability is founded on a clear framework communicated and regulated by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), with effective oversight and compliance based on proportionate risk assessment, and robust intervention when things go wrong.

Where concerns arise, the ESFA works with trusts to prevent financial instability and enable them to recover their financial position and return to stable governance.

Intervention is always proportionate and risk-based and linked to non-compliance with requirements set out in the Academies Financial Handbook and academies’ funding agreements. Each case is assessed on its merits and the ESFA has a range of actions ranging from corresponding with trusts through to the termination of a trust’s funding agreement.

The ESFA’s approach considers the issue and local circumstances. Where an academy trust requires additional support, the ESFA will work with the trust to help it reach a stronger position. Where there is a risk to public funds, the ESFA will intervene in a way that is proportionate to the risk and preserves the effective education of children, including in the most serious cases termination of the Funding Agreement.

The ESFA are always looking to strengthen their ability to identify risk, developing significant support for greater school efficiency and are proactive in assessing risk to prevent financial issues arising in academy trusts.