The department’s statutory guidance for schools, ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ (KCSIE), already makes clear that schools should record all of their concerns, discussions and decisions regarding safeguarding, and the reasons for those decisions, in writing.

The department recently strengthened KCSIE and introduced a new Part 5. This provides guidance on managing reports of child on child sexual violence and sexual harassment. The guidance is clear that the starting point for schools is to pass reports of rape, assault by penetration or sexual assault to the police.

Ofsted inspectors must always evaluate the effectiveness of how schools keep their pupils safe. If inspectors are made aware of safeguarding issues during the inspection process, they will check that these have been acted on . If inspectors find evidence they have not been dealt with this would be reflected in the judgement awarded to the school. If serious safeguarding concerns are reported to Ofsted outside of the inspection cycle, it can of course bring forward the inspection of a school.

No one should ever feel the need to take weapons into schools. It is unacceptable and doing so is a criminal offence. Schools have a statutory power to search for and confiscate prohibited items such as knives and weapons.

The Department has produced advice for schools which makes it clear that school staff can search pupils or their possessions, without consent where there are reasonable grounds to do so. This guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/searching-screening-and-confiscation. If a pupil refuses to be searched, then the school may bar them from its premises.

The Department is also working with the Home Office and other stakeholders, including the Police, Ofsted and the Health and Safety Executive, on updating its school security advice. This will reference knife crime and encourage schools to develop policies and cultures to help address the issue of carrying knives.

Allocations for students studying at post-16 institutions are not available separately for students aged 16 and 17, although data on total allocations and student numbers are available for 16 to 19-year olds as set out in published allocations. The following allocations show the average funding per student at each type of institution for the last five academic years:

The above figures exclude high needs funding but include both full and part-time students, and allocations for the 16 to 19 bursary fund and free meals funding.

The different types of institution are funded through the same national funding formula and have received the same £4,000 base rate of funding for full time 16 and 17-year olds throughout the period. Funding per student at ‘other institutions’ (in the main, further education colleges) is higher because these institutions have a higher proportion of students who attract extra disadvantage funding and who are taking technical courses with a higher cost weighting.

Looked after children already start school at the same age as other children. The School Admissions Code requires admission authorities to provide such children highest priority for admission into school. The Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010 are clear that when a child enters care, everything possible should be done to minimise disruption to their education. Statutory guidance on Promoting Education of Looked After Children suggests that, after an emergency placement, a new educational placement should be secured within 20 school days.

Under the new national funding formula, all schools will get a cash rise in their budgets. As much as anything, the challenge now is finally to address the regional disparities that still exist in our education system.

The Vaughan Primary School, Harrow, has been delivered by the ESFA through the Priority Schools Building Programme (PSBP). We have completed checks of schools delivered through this programme and confirm that the cladding on this school is not Aluminium Composite Material (ACM).

The Department is undertaking an analysis of all school buildings, seeking information from all bodies responsible for schools, to identify those where external cladding has been used (and its type) for schools with four storeys or more. This exercise will cover school buildings of all ages, whether they have been funded through DfE central programmes or not.

All schools must comply with strict building and fire safety regulations. It has always been the case that where a fire risk assessment required for any new building recommends sprinklers are installed to keep children safe, they must be fitted.

The Department holds information on PSBP schools as these are managed centrally by the ESFA. Of the 260 schools in phase one of the PSBP, 75 schools include sprinkler systems. As schools under phase two of the PSBP are still in the early design stage, it is not yet clear which may require sprinklers at this time.

Until recently, schools developed under the Free Schools programme were managed by the individual Free School proposer groups, via their appointed building contractors. Due to this, the Department does not hold information on the number of Free School buildings with and without sprinklers installed.

All schools must have robust safety plans to follow in the event of a fire and have very strong safety features in case a fire breaks out. This includes the fact that they are not occupied overnight and are generally low rise with multiple exit routes.

The Vaughan Primary School, Harrow, has been delivered by the ESFA through the Priority Schools Building Programme (PSBP). We have completed checks of schools delivered through this programme and confirm that the cladding on this school is not Aluminium Composite Material (ACM).

The Department is undertaking an analysis of all school buildings, seeking information from all bodies responsible for schools, to identify those where external cladding has been used (and its type) for schools with four storeys or more. This exercise will cover school buildings of all ages, whether they have been funded through DfE central programmes or not.

All schools must comply with strict building and fire safety regulations. It has always been the case that where a fire risk assessment required for any new building recommends sprinklers are installed to keep children safe, they must be fitted.

The Department holds information on PSBP schools as these are managed centrally by the ESFA. Of the 260 schools in phase one of the PSBP, 75 schools include sprinkler systems. As schools under phase two of the PSBP are still in the early design stage, it is not yet clear which may require sprinklers at this time.

Until recently, schools developed under the Free Schools programme were managed by the individual Free School proposer groups, via their appointed building contractors. Due to this, the Department does not hold information on the number of Free School buildings with and without sprinklers installed.

All schools must have robust safety plans to follow in the event of a fire and have very strong safety features in case a fire breaks out. This includes the fact that they are not occupied overnight and are generally low rise with multiple exit routes.

The core schools budget has been protected in real terms since 2010 and is set to rise from £41 billion in 2017-18 to over £42 billion in 2019-20 with increasing pupil numbers. We are considering the more than 25,000 responses we received to the consultation on the National Funding Formula, and will publish our response in due course.