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Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Private Education

Answer

Members of the diplomatic service are expected to be widely deployable throughout their career. Whilst many parents prefer to take their children with them abroad, in some of the 168 countries and territories where the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has UK-based staff, we do not permit staff to take their children either for health or security reasons. In others, local schools of an acceptable standard are not available. However, frequent moves by staff and families between the United Kingdom and overseas, and between Posts overseas, can be disruptive to the education of the children. Therefore, the FCO provides Continuity of Education Allowance (CEA). This enables staff who meet certain eligibility criteria to choose to provide an uninterrupted education for their children at a British boarding school in the United Kingdom while they continue to take up postings overseas at regular intervals during their career. CEA is a long-standing policy run under successive governments that provides clearly defined and limited financial support to staff to help maintain the continuity of their children's education.

The figures below are for the whole of the United Kingdom, not just England:

Continuity of Education Figures	​
Financial Year	Total CEA Costs
2018/19	£10,932,399.00
2017/18	£11,725.460.00
2016/17	£12,703,109.00
2015/16	£12,409,062.00
2014/15	£12,943,134.00

UK based staff who do not use CEA are still required to ensure that their children receive a full-time education from the start of the school term beginning after the child's 5th birthday, continuing until they reach school leaving age. Where no suitable free English language based schooling is available the FCO will meet the costs of schooling at an appropriate English language school (and in some instances non-English language schools) from a list of pre-identified options in the city where staff are based. Currently free English language based schooling is only available in Australia, New Zealand and the United States.

Education at Post figures	​
Financial Year	Cost of Private Schools fees overseas
2018/19	£17,266,529.00
2017/18	£16,125,040.00
2016/17	£14,339,087.00
2015/16	£14,207,444.00
2014/15	£11,782,957.00

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

752

Session

2019-19

Subjects

Allowances Private education Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk