The department is working with the sector to continue building capacity and expertise in financial management, particularly the prevention of a deficit. This includes supporting effective school resource management in trusts with three-year financial forecasting and developing buying hubs and recommended deals for all schools. We are also continuing to work with local authorities, as appropriate, to help them identify potential financial health issues and support schools. We have worked with them to understand how they work with maintained schools, share good practice and use the financial data available to them.

In particular, the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) have introduced Schools Resource Management Advisers (SRMAs) to provide help and support to trusts and maintained schools. SRMAs are sector experts who will work with schools and trusts to provide tailored advice on how to make best use of their revenue and capital resources, and reduce non-staff spend, to deliver educational outcomes and contribute to whole-school improvement, prioritising those schools which will benefit the most.

In the case of academy trusts, an academy trust having an in-year deficit is not in and of itself a negative thing. Schools can draw on their reserves for a range of planned and sensible reasons, for example, to spend on capital projects or whole-school improvements. This is prudent financial planning and not at the expense of educational delivery. The academies sector is stable with fewer than 2% of trusts subject to a Financial Notice to Improve.

Where an academy trust does require additional support to manage a deficit, the ESFA will work with them to help them 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 education provision. This can include issuing an Financial Notice to Improve, or in the most serious cases, termination of the Funding Agreement.

Schools are required by law to have a behaviour policy that outlines measures to prevent racist and other forms of bullying. The Department produces guidance for head teachers and school staff on developing school behaviour policy. The full guidance can be viewed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/488034/Behaviour_and_Discipline_in_Schools_-_A_guide_for_headteachers_and_School_Staff.pdf.

Under the Equalities Act 2010, schools are under a duty take steps to eliminate harassment, foster good relations, and advance equality of opportunity.

Ofsted considers how a school complies with its statutory duties and promotes equality of opportunity, and holds schools to account for racism or other behaviour issues.

Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) are currently available for schools and other education providers in the UK to purchase through the NHS Supply Chain at a reduced cost. These arrangements are available to all UK schools, including academies and independent schools, sixth-form colleges, further education institutions and early years settings (including holiday and out-of-school providers).

There is no legal requirement for schools to purchase an AED, but the government encourages them to do so as part of their first aid equipment.

The government has produced guidance for schools on buying, installing and using an AED, which can be viewed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/automated-external-defibrillators-aeds-in-schools.

Schools need to respond to tragic incidents, which vary widely in nature. The Department’s Mental Health and Behaviour guidance includes links to sources of information and support, including on bereavement and other traumatic events. This includes MindEd, which provides online advice and training on mental health for all professionals working with children and young people. Where children need more specialist support, it is important that other services work together with schools to provide the right support. The NHS Long Term Plan sets out how specialist mental health support will be increased including through to access crisis care 24 hours a day by 2023/24, and support for at least an additional 345,000 children and young people who will be able to access support via NHS funded mental health services, including mental health support teams linked to schools and colleges.

While the Government does not routinely provide additional funding to schools to respond to specific incidents, it will look at whether adequate support is available in specific cases. In response to incidents in Manchester and at the Grenfell Tower the government provided funding to enable local authorities to provide additional support to schools, colleges and children affected. The planning of mental health support across education, health, local authorities and the voluntary sector is a critical element in the response to such major incidents, such as the terrorist events in Manchester and London.

All schools should be safe environments in which staff and pupils feel happy and able to fulfil their potential. Any form of violence in schools is unacceptable and should not be tolerated. Where a violent incident constitutes a criminal offence, the school should report it to the police.

The Government is committed to ensuring that all teachers are equipped with the skills to tackle both the serious behavioural issues that compromise the safety and wellbeing of pupils or school staff. To support schools in ensuring that they remain safe and disciplined environments we have produced a range of guidance materials.

Guidance is provided to schools to help them develop behaviour policies to manage disruptive and poor behaviour within the classroom and, in doing so, reduce the likelihood of violent attacks on teachers or pupils.

This guidance material includes guidance on controlling access to school premises. This helps schools understand that it is a criminal offence for a person who is on school premises without lawful authority to cause or permit a nuisance or disturbance and the action they can take in response.

Searching, screening, confiscation guidance for schools makes clear that staff can search pupils and their possessions, where they believe a pupil is carrying a dangerous item which could endanger pupils or staff.

In addition to current guidance, the Department has worked with the Home Office, and other key stakeholders, including the police, Ofsted and the Health and Safety Executive, to produce new school security guidance. New draft guidance includes references to help schools deal with violent crime and encourages them to develop policies and culture to help reduce and address violent related incidents in schools. A public consultation on the guidance closed last month and the guidance will be published later in the year.

The Government has sent a clear message to schools that bullying is unacceptable and should not be tolerated.

All schools are legally required to have a behaviour policy with measures to prevent all forms of bullying. They have the freedom to develop their own anti-bullying strategies appropriate to their environment and are held to account by Ofsted.

The Department issues guidance to schools on how to prevent and respond to bullying as part of their overall behaviour policy. The guidance outlines the Government’s approach to bullying; the legal obligations and powers schools have to tackle bullying; and the principles which underpin the most effective anti-bullying strategies in schools. In our drive to tackle bad behaviour, we have strengthened teachers' powers to enforce discipline and promote good behaviour. Additionally, the Respectful School Communities tool supports schools to develop a whole-school approach which promotes respect and discipline.

The Department is also providing over £2.8 million of funding between September 2016 and March 2020, to four anti-bullying organisations to support schools to tackle bullying. This is in addition to £4 millon that the Government Equalities Office are providing, over the same period, to help schools prevent and respond to Homophobic, Biphobic and Transphobic bullying.

The new mandatory subjects of Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education, and Health Education, will enable schools to deliver high-quality teaching including about acceptable ways to behave, both off and online. The draft guidance sets out that pupils should know about the different types of bullying, the impact it has, the responsibility of bystanders and how to get help. The consultation closed on 7 November 2018 and we are currently analysing the responses, which will help to finalise the regulations and guidance.

The majority of central Government funding for home to school transport is made available to local authorities through the local Government finance settlement from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

This funding is not ring fenced. It is for local authorities to decide how they spend the total amount of funding available to them, through this and other sources.

Data showing how much local authorities spend on home to school transport during 2017-18 can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/la-and-school-expenditure-2017-to-2018-financial-year.

Data for previous years is available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/section-251-materials.

The attached table shows the number of school closures for all reasons in England in each of the last three calendar years.
In the majority of instances, a closure is a procedural event marking the ending of one legal entity immediately followed by the opening of a successor establishment under a new legal entity, for example where a school ceases to be maintained by its local authority and becomes an academy.

The actual number of schools that are recorded as closing without being replaced by a successor establishment are set out in the table below.

* including University Technical Colleges and Studio Schools.

Education is a devolved matter, and there have been no recent discussions between the Secretary of State for Education and the Permanent Secretary in the Department of Education in Northern Ireland on the financial situation of schools in Northern Ireland.

Schools will be required to teach mental health as part of the Department’s plans to make health education compulsory. The Government is currently seeking views on the draft guidance and regulations, which will support the new subjects of relationships education in primary, relationships and sex education in secondary, and health education in all schools. The consultation includes questions on what support schools will need to deliver high-quality teaching. The consultation closed on the 7 November. https://consult.education.gov.uk/pshe/relationships-education-rse-health-education/.

The draft statutory guidance sets out core content that schools will teach. The draft mental health content includes teaching pupils how to recognise and talk about their emotions, how to judge when they or someone they know needs support and prevention, including the benefits of physical exercise.

Schools will decide what further advice to provide to their pupils. To support schools, the Government will fund the training of a Designated Senior Lead for mental health in every school, to put in place a whole school approach to mental health and well-being. This can cover activities as part of pastoral support and advice for individual pupils with specific needs.

No visits to schools by the Armed Forces are directly linked to recruitment, other than specific careers/jobs fairs which generally involve a range of employers.

The Armed Forces only visit when they have been invited by a school to support activities. While presentations may be given highlighting the careers available in the Armed Forces, no pupil is ever signed up or able to make a commitment to become a recruit in the Armed Forces during the course of a visit. The visits cover a range of activities such as career events, citizenship talks, science and maths challenges and other indoor or outdoor exercises. The purpose of the visit is always agreed in advance.

In the academic year 2017-18, centrally held records indicate that the Navy conducted an estimated 3,240 school visits and the Army carried out 4,710 visits. Records held by the Royal Air Force (RAF) indicate that in the period 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018 the RAF visited 2,310 schools.

The Government has committed to invest around £23 billon in the school estate between 2016-17 and 2020-21 to deliver new school places and rebuild and replace buildings in the worst condition. This includes funding for new buildings and school expansions in England.

A large proportion of this funding is delivered through annual allocations to local authorities (LAs) and larger multi-academy trusts (MATs), which then prioritise investment in their estates based on detailed local knowledge. This includes basic need funding to LAs to meet their duty to ensure there are enough places for children in their areas. In response to the needs of LAs, the Department has allocated £1.7 billion in funding to LAs for 2018-19 and 2019-20. They can then use this funding to build new schools or to expand a school within their area, depending on local priorities.

Since 2015, the Department has allocated a total of £5.6 billion to schools and those responsible for school buildings to maintain and improve the condition of the estate, including £1.4 billion in 2018-19. Smaller and stand-alone academy trusts bid for condition funding from the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) each year and in 2018-19, we allocated £524 million through the CIF main round. Published data on current and future capital allocations is available on the GOV.UK website.

Alongside these allocations, the Department also delivers major building programmes centrally. This includes the £4.4 billion Priority School Building Programme, which is rebuilding or refurbishing more than 500 school buildings in the poorest conditions across the country, and the free schools programme.

On 8 March, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland set out a NI budget position for 2018-19 to give clarity and certainty on NI finances for the year ahead. It provides a secure basis for protecting and preserving public services including in education which has seen spending protected in real terms for the 2018/19 financial year.

Education is a devolved matter and while we have ensured that sufficient funding has been provided to maintain the overall schools budget at the same level as 2017-18, decisions on the allocation of that budget and the associated assessment of the financial position of individual schools are a matter for the Department of Education, and in the absence of the Executive, the Department’s Permanent Secretary.

The Secretary of State and I remain firmly of the belief that the right way forward for decision making in Northern Ireland on critical issues such as the funding of schools lies in stable, fully functioning and inclusive devolved government and working towards restoring devolved government remains our top priority.