Investing in our Children's Future

Submitted by: 11 members.
Mover: Callum Robertson.
Summation: Munira Wilson MP (Spokesperson for Education, Children and Young People).

Conference believes that:

1. Every child, no matter their background, can achieve great things; they deserve the best possible start in life, with schools that enable them to attain academic and all other forms of excellence.
2. Education is the best investment we can make in our country's future.
3. The Conservatives have consistently let down children and parents, neglected schools and colleges, and failed to grasp the scale of the pandemic's damage to children's learning and mental health.
4. Art subjects help children and young people to develop crucial creative and emotional skills, as well as preparing them for jobs in the thriving creative industries.

Conference notes that:

1. Schools are being forced to cut back on staff, school trips and IT equipment to manage rising costs.
2. Between 2019 and mid-2023, 39 schools had fully or partly closed because they were unsafe. As of 31st August, over 140 more schools had to close one or more buildings due to the RAAC crisis.
3. The Pupil Premium has proved very effective at closing the attainment gap for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds, but since 2015 the Conservatives have cut it by more than 10% in real terms.
4. 18% of children have a probable mental health disorder, yet government funding for mental health support teams for schools ends next year.
5. 800,000 children in poverty are ineligible for free school meals, and more than 200,000 eligible children are not registered - meanwhile, the Conservatives have cut funding for free school meals by 15% in real terms since 2015.
6. There is a crisis in teacher recruitment and retention, leaving millions of secondary school pupils to be taught by someone who isn't a specialist teacher in their subject.
7. Employers are losing faith in England's exam system and using their own assessments instead.
8. The death of a headteacher in Reading tragically underscored the high-stakes nature of Ofsted inspections, which places teachers and school leaders under enormous strain.
9. Participation in extra-curricular activities improves school attendance and exam performance, and helps children to develop valuable skills such as creativity and teamwork.
10. Parental engagement in children's education can have a big, positive impact on attainment.
11. Only half of children with complex special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) receive an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan within the 20-week limit, and 96% of SEND Tribunal cases are decided in the parents' favour.
12. The number of pupils in local authority-funded alternative provision (AP) settings has increased by 79% over the last five years, and there are now 6,800 AP placements with unregistered providers.
13. The number of students taking arts and creative subjects at GCSE has fallen by 30% since 2015, and A Level entries have fallen by 15%.
14. Over one in five children are persistently absent from school, twice the proportion before the pandemic.

Conference therefore calls on the Government to:

1. Invest in education by:
   1. Increasing school and college funding per pupil above the rate of inflation every year.
   2. Ending the scandal of crumbling school and college buildings by investing in new buildings and clearing the backlog of repairs.
   3. Reversing Conservative cuts to the Pupil Premium and free school meals, and introducing a Young People's Premium for those aged 16-18.
2. Ensure that children are healthy, happy and ready to learn by:
   1. Putting a dedicated, qualified mental health professional in every school.
   2. Extending free school meals to all children in primary education and all secondary school children whose families receive Universal Credit, and automatically enrolling eligible children.
   3. Addressing the underfunding and neglect of children's mental health services, youth services and youth justice services, so that less of the burden falls on schools.
3. Tackle the crisis in teacher recruitment and retention by:
   1. Creating a teacher workforce strategy to ensure that every secondary school child is taught by a specialist teacher in their subject.
   2. Reforming the School Teachers' Review Body to make it properly independent of Government and able to recommend fair pay rises for teachers, and fully funding those rises every year.
   3. Funding teacher training properly so that all trainee posts in school are paid.
   4. Introducing a clear and properly funded programme of high-quality professional development for all teachers, including training on effective parental engagement.
4. Urgently establish a standing commission to build a long- term consensus across parties and teachers to broaden the curriculum and make qualifications at 16 and 18 fit for the 21st century, drawing on best practice such as the International Baccalaureate and also developing vocational and practical courses in secondary schools.
5. Implement root-and-branch reform of school inspections, to make Ofsted trusted by parents and a critical friend to schools, by:
   1. Replacing single-grade judgements with report cards that show parents the true strengths and weaknesses of each school.
   2. Ensuring that inspections deliver a complete evaluation of the whole school, including attainment, discipline, curriculum breadth, teacher workload, provision for children with SEND and mental ill health, and suitability of the workforce to deliver the curriculum.
   3. Introducing annual safeguarding and financial check- ups, separate to Ofsted, to ensure consistent good governance.
   4. Requiring Ofsted to work with schools, providing the guidance and support they need to improve, rather than simply changing governance.
6. Expand provision of extra-curricular activities, such as sport, music, drama, debating and coding, starting with a new free entitlement for disadvantaged children.
7. Implement a new parental engagement strategy, including a regular, published parent survey and guidance for schools on providing accessible information to parents on what their children are learning.
8. Tackle the crisis in SEND funding by:
   1. Giving local authorities extra funding to halve the amount that schools pay towards the cost of a child's EHC plan.
   2. Establishing a National Body for SEND to fund support for children with high needs.
9. Require all AP settings to be registered.
10. Support the education of children in care, extend Pupil Premium Plus funding to children in kinship care, and guarantee any child taken into care a school place within three weeks, if required to move schools.
11. Include arts subjects in the English Baccalaureate and give power to Ofsted to monitor the curriculum so that schools continue to provide a rich curriculum including subjects like art, music or drama.
12. Support the education of children in temporary accommodation by extending Pupil Premium Plus funding to them.

Applicability: England only.

Motion before amendment

Conference believes that:

1. Every child, no matter their background, can achieve great things; they deserve the best possible start in life, with schools that enable them to attain academic excellence.
2. Education is the best investment we can make in our country's future.
3. The Conservatives have consistently let down children and parents, neglected schools and colleges, and failed to grasp the scale of the pandemic's damage to children's learning and mental health.

Conference notes that:

1. Schools are being forced to cut back on staff, school trips and IT equipment to manage rising costs.
2. Since 2019, 39 schools have fully or partly closed because they were unsafe.
3. The Pupil Premium has proved very effective at closing the attainment gap for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds, but since 2015 the Conservatives have cut it by more than 10% in real terms.
4. 18% of children have a probable mental health disorder, yet government funding for mental health support teams for schools ends next year.
5. 800,000 children in poverty are ineligible for free school meals, and more than 200,000 eligible children are not registered - meanwhile, the Conservatives have cut funding for free school meals by 15% in real terms since 2015.
6. There is a crisis in teacher recruitment and retention, leaving millions of secondary school pupils to be taught by someone who isn't a specialist teacher in their subject.
7. Employers are losing faith in England's exam system and using their own assessments instead.
8. The death of a headteacher in Reading tragically underscored the high-stakes nature of Ofsted inspections, which places teachers and school leaders under enormous strain.
9. Participation in extra-curricular activities improves school attendance and exam performance, and helps children to develop valuable skills such as creativity and teamwork.
10. Parental engagement in children's education can have a big, positive impact on attainment.
11. Only half of children with complex special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) receive an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan within the 20-week limit, and 96% of SEND Tribunal cases are decided in the parents' favour.
12. The number of pupils in local authority-funded alternative provision (AP) settings has increased by 79% over the last five years, and there are now 6,800 AP placements with unregistered providers.

Conference therefore calls on the Government to:

1. Invest in education by:
   1. Increasing school and college funding per pupil above the rate of inflation every year.
   2. Ending the scandal of crumbling school and college buildings by investing in new buildings and clearing the backlog of repairs.
   3. Reversing Conservative cuts to the Pupil Premium and free school meals, and introducing a Young People's Premium for those aged 16-18.
2. Ensure that children are healthy, happy and ready to learn by:
   1. Putting a dedicated, qualified mental health professional in every school.
   2. Extending free school meals to all children in primary education and all secondary school children whose families receive Universal Credit, and automatically enrolling eligible children.
   3. Addressing the underfunding and neglect of children's mental health services, youth services and youth justice services, so that less of the burden falls on schools.
3. Tackle the crisis in teacher recruitment and retention by:
   1. Creating a teacher workforce strategy to ensure that every secondary school child is taught by a specialist teacher in their subject.
   2. Reforming the School Teachers' Review Body to make it properly independent of Government and able to recommend fair pay rises for teachers, and fully funding those rises every year.
   3. Funding teacher training properly so that all trainee posts in school are paid.
   4. Introducing a clear and properly funded programme of high-quality professional development for all teachers, including training on effective parental engagement.
4. Urgently establish a standing commission to build a long- term consensus across parties and teachers to broaden the curriculum and make qualifications at 16 and 18 fit for the 21st century, drawing on best practice such as the International Baccalaureate.
5. Implement root-and-branch reform of school inspections, to make Ofsted trusted by parents and a critical friend to schools, by:
   1. Replacing single-grade judgements with report cards that show parents the true strengths and weaknesses of each school.
   2. Ensuring that inspections deliver a complete evaluation of the whole school, including attainment, discipline, curriculum breadth, teacher workload, provision for children with SEND and mental ill health, and suitability of the workforce to deliver the curriculum.
   3. Introducing annual safeguarding and financial check- ups, separate to Ofsted, to ensure consistent good governance.
   4. Requiring Ofsted to work with schools, providing the guidance and support they need to improve, rather than simply changing governance.
6. Expand provision of extra-curricular activities, such as sport, music, drama, debating and coding, starting with a new free entitlement for disadvantaged children.
7. Implement a new parental engagement strategy, including a regular, published parent survey and guidance for schools on providing accessible information to parents on what their children are learning.
8. Tackle the crisis in SEND funding by:
   1. Giving local authorities extra funding to halve the amount that schools pay towards the cost of a child's EHC plan.
   2. Establishing a National Body for SEND to fund support for children with high needs.
9. Require all AP settings to be registered.
10. Support the education of children in care, extend Pupil Premium Plus funding to children in kinship care, and guarantee any child taken into care a school place within three weeks, if required to move schools.

Applicability: England only.

Mover: 7 minutes; summation of motion and mover and summation of any amendments: 4 minutes; all other speakers: 3 minutes. For eligibility and procedure for speaking in this debate, see pages 110-111 of the agenda.

The deadline for amendments to this motion is 13.00 Monday 11 September. Those selected for debate will be printed in Conference Extra and Sunday’s Conference Daily. The deadline for requests for separate votes is 09.00 on Saturday 23 September.

Amendments

Drafting

The FCC has agreed to make the following drafting amendments to the motion:

In Line 4, after ‘academic’ insert 'and all other forms of’.

Delete B. (lines 14–15) and insert:

B.      Between 2019 and mid-2023, 39 schools had fully or partly closed because they were unsafe. As of 31st August, over 140 more schools had to close one or more buildings due to the RAAC crisis.

After L. (line 49), insert:

M.     Over one in five children are persistently absent from school, twice the proportion before the pandemic.

At end of 4. (line 90) insert: ‘and also developing vocational and practical courses in secondary schools’.

Amendment One

PASSED

Submitted by: 10 members
Mover: Baroness Bonham-Carter (Lords Spokesperson for Culture, Media and Sport).
Summation: Jamie Stone MP (Spokesperson for Culture, Media and Sport).

After iii) (line 10), insert:

IV.     Art subjects help children and young people to develop crucial creative and emotional skills, as well as preparing them for jobs in the thriving creative industries.”

After L. (line 49), insert:

M.     The number of students taking arts and creative subjects at GCSE has fallen by 30% since 2015, and A Level entries have fallen by 15%.

After 10. (line 126), insert:

11.    Include arts subjects in the English Baccalaureate and give power to Ofsted to monitor the curriculum so that schools continue to provide a rich curriculum including subjects like art, music or drama.

Amendment Two

PASSED

Submitted by: Ealing
Mover: Alistair Milton                                                                                           
Summation: to be announced.               

After 10. (line 126), insert:

11.    Support the education of children in temporary accommodation by extending Pupil Premium Plus funding to them.