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James Naish:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the independent report entitled National review of higher education student suicide deaths, published on 21 May 2025, whether she plans to introduce a duty of candour for the higher education sector. \p Janet Daby: This government is committed to working with higher education providers, experts, and students to turn the findings of the national review of higher education (HE) student suicides into real, lasting improvements. That means better support for students, a commitment to openness with families, and a sector-wide focus on preventing these heartbreaking tragedies.

The department continues to work with the HE mental health implementation taskforce to develop guidance and drive adoption across the sector. The taskforce will examine recommendations from the review, including the call for a duty of candour, and work to understand the most effective way to bring about change to ensure greater transparency with bereaved families following a suspected suicide.
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Ian Sollom:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many universities are classified by the Office for Students as being at material risk of financial failure. \p Janet Daby: The government has not provided emergency funding to any university since 4 July 2024.

Universities are independent from government and as such must continue to make the necessary financial decisions to ensure their long-term sustainability. If a university was at risk of failure, the department would work with the Office for Students (OfS) to ensure that students are protected, recognising the significant impact university closure would have on their future.

The OfS dedicates significant resources to ensuring the sector's financial sustainability but does not provide emergency financial support to universities. It assesses financial sustainability on a case-by-case basis and does not disclose the identity of institutions deemed to be at material risk, as this is considered highly commercially sensitive. The OfS’ most recent report on the sector’s financial condition can be found here: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/publications/financial-sustainability-of-higher-education-providers-in-england-2025/.

While the sector is autonomous, we are committed to creating a secure future for our world-leading universities.

The department has appointed Professor Edward Peck as OfS Chair, where he will play a key role in strengthening the commitment of the OfS to monitoring the financial health of the sector. Additionally, we made the difficult decision to uplift tuition fee limits by 3.1% (in line with inflation) from the 2025/26 academic year. The department will publish its plans for higher education reform as part of the Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper this summer.
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Mr Richard Holden:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Justice on introducing a formal duty to the criminal justice system to notify (a) schools and (b) local safeguarding boards when the parent of a child aged 18 or under is imprisoned. \p Janet Daby: The Department for Education and the Ministry of Justice are working closely to deliver our joint manifesto commitment to identify children affected by parental imprisonment and ensure they get the support they need to thrive. We understand the importance of driving action on this important agenda and we are working with a wide range of stakeholders, including people with lived experience, schools and those with expertise in safeguarding, to ensure we take a child-centred, trauma-informed and age-appropriate approach.
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Luke Murphy:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of local authority compliance with the requirement to provide support plans to kinship carers under Special Guardianship Orders. \p Janet Daby: There is a general duty on local authorities to arrange for the provision of special guardianship support services in their local areas.

Children who were previously looked after by a local authority, and their special guardians, have an automatic right to an assessment for special guardianship support services from the local authority that last looked after the child. Other special guardians may request an assessment, but it is at the discretion of the local authority whether to carry one out.

Ofsted has a crucial role to play in upholding children’s social care standards, including the support services provided by local authorities to families and children who have special guardianship orders in place. They provide independent, up to date evaluations on the quality of support, safeguarding, and leadership, making sure children are safe and supported.

In May 2025, the Law Commission began a project to consider the scope for reform to simplify and streamline the orders underpinning kinship care placements and how to better support the consideration of kinship care as an option for children who cannot remain with their parents. It will consider the adequacy and consistency of the legal orders underpinning kinship care placements, including whether the current legislation meets the needs of children and kinship carers.
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Luke Murphy:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential (a) implications for her policies of the (i) financial and (ii) housing pressures experienced by kinship carers and (b) impact of those pressures on the sustainability of Special Guardianship placements. \p Janet Daby: The government recognises the significant financial, and wider, pressures faced by kinship carers and their impact on the sustainability of special guardianship placements.

That is why the government announced £40 million investment in a Kinship Allowance Pilot, which will test the impact of providing an allowance to kinship carers. The Expression of Interest for this pilot launched on 17 June 2025 and more information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/apply-to-become-a-kinship-allowance-pilot-provider. The programme is expected to begin in autumn 2025 and will support approximately 5,000 kinship children.

Through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, we are enshrining the first definition of kinship care in law and mandating local authorities to publish their kinship local offer, increasing their accountability for ensuring all kinship families are getting the information they need about the support available to them.

The department also funds the charity ‘Kinship’ to provide over 140 peer support groups and a free training package for kinship carers across England.
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Preet Kaur Gill:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the number of classifications that children's services use to record child sexual abuse. \p Janet Daby: The number of episodes of children in need with the ‘sexual abuse’ and ‘child sexual exploitation’ factors identified in an assessment in the year ending 31 March 2024 can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/12ce1c63-e357-4177-3d87-08ddae36ea5c. Factors identified at the end of assessment are additional factors that social workers record as being relevant in a case.

These figures are based on assessment factors recorded against individual episodes of need, which begin when a child is referred to children’s social care services and is assessed as being in need of children’s social care services. Each unique factor is counted once against a given episode, irrespective of the number of times the same factor was recorded in that episode. However, as a child can have more than one episode of need during the year ending 31 March, the same child can be recorded more than once for a given factor.

The majority of children have more than one unique factor recorded for each episode of need. It should be noted that not all episodes have factors recorded, but this has improved over time. Nonetheless, there can be differences in the recording practices between local authorities. Therefore this data should be treated with caution and should not be taken to represent the national, regional or local authority prevalence of particular issues.

The number of child protection plans as at 31 March 2024 where sexual abuse was the initial or latest category of abuse is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/a9a79795-cdd0-42fc-8333-08ddaf142d69.
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Luke Murphy:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help improve coordination between public services and local authorities in cases involving safeguarding concerns for children under Special Guardianship Orders. \p Janet Daby: The multi-agency statutory guidance ‘Working together to safeguard children’ outlines how sharing of information between organisations and agencies within a multi-agency system is essential to improve outcomes for children and their families, including those with Special Guardianship Orders.

As part of the roll-out of the Families First Partnership Programme, the department is ensuring stronger multi-agency approaches to child protection and safeguarding for all children, including those under Special Guardianship Orders. This includes legislating for new multi-agency child protection teams and a strengthened role for education in multi-agency safeguarding arrangements.

£555 million will be available for 2026/27 and 2027/28 to local authorities to roll out these reforms across the country. This in addition to the £500 million made available for 2025/26, which will also continue for each year of the spending review period.

‘Working together to safeguard children’ was updated in 2023 to place additional focus on strengthening multi-agency working across the whole system of help, support and protection.
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Mr Richard Holden:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 4 December 2024 to Question 16525 on Guardianship and Parents: Prisoners, what recent progress her Department has made with the Ministry of Justice to effectively identify children of prisoners. \p Janet Daby: Officials at the Department for Education (DfE) and Ministry of Justice (MoJ) continue to work closely together to deliver on our manifesto commitment to identify children affected by parental imprisonment and ensure they get the support they need to thrive.

We recognise that our approach to identification must be a sensitive one and link to an informed, consistent and sustainable nationwide support offer.

Our departments have engaged a broad range of external stakeholders with a variety of expertise to help inform our policy development and will continue to do so as our work on this commitment progresses.

In April 2025 DfE and MoJ Ministers co-chaired a roundtable meeting and brought together those with lived experience of parental imprisonment, expertise on local authority family support, safeguarding, prisons, housing, social work, courts and schools.

A cross-government workshop in June 2025 gathered officials from a range of government departments.

Officials from both DfE and MoJ have also visited local authorities, met with children and their families in the community, with parents and social workers in prisons, and participated in several focus groups.
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James MacCleary:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she plans to establish family hubs across the country. \p Janet Daby: On 11 June, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, set out plans for spending and public sector reforms through the Spending Review 2025. This announcement confirmed departmental budgets for 2026/27 onwards and committed that, the government will continue to invest in and expand the Family Hubs programme, working with parents to help give children the best start in life.

This builds upon my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister’s Plan for Change, published in December 2024, which outlined the ambition to give children the best start in life by strengthening and joining up family services to improve support through pregnancy and early childhood.

We are working within the department and the Department of Health and Social Care to share further information about what the Spending Review settlement means for the continuation and expansion of the programme. We recognise the importance of providing local authorities with certainty of future funding across the whole programme and will share further information when we are able to.
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James MacCleary:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of learning through play in early years education. \p Stephen Morgan: The early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework sets the standards and requirements that all early years providers must follow to ensure every child has the best start in life and is prepared for school. The framework is clear that children learn through play and that play is essential for children’s development. For example singing songs helps to develop language comprehension, vocabulary, self-expression and literacy. Practitioners should carefully organise enabling environments and cultures for high-quality play and are encouraged to create games and provide opportunity for play both indoors and outdoors. 'The Children of the 2020s' study is part of a programme of departmental research that will improve our understanding of children’s progress throughout key phases of learning and education and aid future policy development. The study follows more than 8500 families and their babies, born in England between September and November 2021. The first wave of data published in 2023 showed that more than half of primary caregivers engaged in physical or turn-taking play, singing, pretend games and noisy play with their babies several times a day. These activities were linked to improved early language development. The second wave of data is due to be published in the autumn, and we will assess that to consider how we shape future policy for early education, including anything it tells us about learning through play.
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Jim Shannon:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help support young men's mental health in (a) schools and (b) other educational settings. \p Stephen Morgan: Education is a devolved matter and this response outlines the information for England only.

This government is committed to improving mental health support for all children and young people, including young men. This is critical to high and rising standards in schools and breaking down barriers to opportunity, helping pupils to achieve and thrive in education.

As part of this, the government has launched a call for evidence on men’s health, including mental health and support for young men, as part of its commitment to developing a men’s health strategy. The consultation is open until 17 July: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-launches-call-for-evidence-on-mens-health.

The government will provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school by expanding Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs), so every child and young person has access to early support to address problems before they escalate. By April 2026, we estimate that 60% of pupils in schools and learners in further education in England will be covered by an MHST, up from 52% in April 2025.

We continue to work closely with students, parents, mental health experts and the higher education (HE) sector to drive meaningful change in mental health practice, and support student mental health in HE settings, through the HE Mental Health Implementation Taskforce.
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Ellie Chowns:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 13 May 2025 to Question 49999 on Holiday Activities and Food Programme, following the Spending Review 2025, whether the Holiday Activities and Food Programme will continue beyond March 2026; and whether the 500,000 children who are now eligible for free school meals will be eligible for the Holiday Activities and Food Programme. \p Stephen Morgan: The government remains committed to the holiday activities and food (HAF) programme to ensure children who are eligible for free school meals can access enriching activities and healthy meals. More than £200 million has been allocated to the programme for 2025/26.

We are currently working through the outcomes of the Spending Review, and we will share further information in relation to the future of the HAF programme in due course.
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James MacCleary:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of parents and carers reading to children in the early years on the mental wellbeing of (a) children and (b) parents and carers. \p Stephen Morgan: Reading with young children supports not only early literacy but also emotional wellbeing, for both children and their parents or carers. Shared reading helps build secure attachments, supports emotional regulation and creates positive routines that help children feel safe and connected. These everyday interactions can also reduce stress and strengthen communication. Through our ‘Little Moments Together’ campaign and investment in home learning services, the department is helping families make the most of these moments. Family Hubs can play a key role in this, offering accessible, community-based support to help parents build strong, nurturing relationships that support both learning and wellbeing.
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James MacCleary:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of community activities at supporting families with children in the early years. \p Stephen Morgan: The government recognises the important role of community-based activities in supporting families during the early years. Through Family Hubs, we are working with local authorities and voluntary sector partners to deliver place-based, peer-led support for families with babies and young children. Activities such as stay-and-play sessions and parenting groups help build parental confidence, reduce isolation and promote early learning through everyday interactions. Our investment in home learning services includes funding for outreach and community engagement, ensuring that families, particularly those facing disadvantage, can access the support they need to give their children the best start in life.
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James Naish:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of implementing a place-based approach to early years services to support literacy. \p Stephen Morgan: The government supports a place-based approach to early years services, recognising that local areas are best placed to understand and respond to the needs of their communities. Through the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme, the department is enabling local authorities to deliver integrated, evidence-based support that strengthens the home learning environment, one of the most effective drivers of early literacy. Our national campaign, ‘Little Moments Together’, encourages parents to chat, play and read with their children, helping to build language-rich home environments. These efforts are part of our wider ambition under our Plan for Change to give every child the best start in life, improving early communication and literacy outcomes to ensure every child is ready to thrive at school. In the recent spending review, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, confirmed that the government will continue to invest in and expand the Family Hubs programme as part of the Spending Review 2025.
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Andrew Gwynne:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to increase levels of Sure Start provision in the most disadvantaged areas. \p Janet Daby: The government’s Plan for Change sets out a commitment to give every child the best start in life. Progress on this commitment will be measured by assessing whether 75% of five-year-olds are reaching a good level of development in the Early Years Foundation Stage assessment, which looks at children’s development across areas such as language, personal, social and emotional development, and mathematics and literacy, by 2028.

Delivering this will require strengthening and co-ordinating family services to improve support through pregnancy and early childhood. This includes continuing to invest in and build up Family Hubs and Start for Life programmes, which build on the lessons from Sure Start.

75 local authorities with some of the highest levels of deprivation have received funding and there are now more than 400 Family Hubs open across those local authorities. The department is investing a further £126 million in the 2025/26 financial year to give every child the best start in life and deliver on the Plan for Change. Future funding decisions are subject to the multi-year spending review.

Data on the number of Sure Start children’s centres is supplied by local authorities via the department’s Get Information about Schools (GIAS) database portal, which can be accessed here: https://www.get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/.

Based on information supplied by local authorities in the Greater Manchester area, 39 children’s centres have closed since 2010. Local authorities in Greater Manchester have converted a further 62 children’s centres into children’s centre linked sites. ‘Children’s centre linked sites’ are formerly children's centres in their own right, but they no longer meet the statutory definition of a children’s centre. They offer some early childhood services on behalf of another children's centre.

The information on numbers of children’s centres that have closed or converted to linked sites since 2010 is based on data supplied by the local authorities in Greater Manchester as of 2 June 2025. These figures could change again in future, since local authorities may update the database at any time.
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Ian Sollom:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps Skills England will take to encourage (a) SMEs and (b) other employers to offer more apprenticeships for people under 25. \p Janet Daby: Skills England will support young people to develop the skills they need.

The rate of young people’s apprenticeship starts has fallen by almost 40% since 2015/16. We want to rebalance the programme back towards young people.

This government, supported by Skills England, is focused on establishing a coherent skills system with more flexible training options that support employers to fill skills gaps whilst driving growth and spreading opportunity.

Supported by Skills England, we are introducing foundation apprenticeships to get young people into work-based training and employment, as well as delivering shorter duration apprenticeships to provide flexibility for employers and learners.

Employers are not required to pay anything towards employees’ National Insurance for all apprentices aged up to age 25 when the employee’s wage is below £50,270 a year.

We recognise the need to protect the smallest employers which is why we have more than doubled the Employment Allowance to £10,500, meaning more than half of businesses with National Insurance contributions liabilities either gain or see no change next year.

We also provide £1,000 to both employers and training providers when they take on apprentices aged under 19.
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Ian Sollom:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve access to (a) high-quality technical education and (b) work-placed training in Cambridgeshire. \p Janet Daby: As announced in the Spending Review, the department is making over £1 billion of additional investment per year in skills by 2028/29.

This will support and grow the wide range of technical routes and work-based training available for people of all ages, across the country, including in Cambridgeshire. This investment includes:

The department has also strengthened legislation to ensure all secondary pupils have multiple opportunities for meaningful encounters with providers of technical education and apprenticeships.
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Kate Osamor:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of uprating in line with inflation the income threshold for Free School Meals eligibility for children in families with No Recourse to Public Funds. \p Stephen Morgan: Children from households with no recourse to public funds can receive free meals in school, subject to meeting income criteria set by the department in our published guidance.

As with all government programmes, we continue to keep free school meals under review.
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Ellie Chowns:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she plans to take to monitor compliance with the updated school food standards; and what support she plans to provide to schools that are not currently meeting those standards. \p Stephen Morgan: The department is engaging with stakeholders on revising the school food standards, to ensure they support our work to create the healthiest generation of children in history.

School governors and trustees have a statutory duty to ensure compliance with the school food standards.

To improve understanding of the school food standards and give governing boards confidence to hold their school leaders to account, the department, along with National Governance Association, developed an online training course on school food for governors and trustees.

The department is also working with the Food Standards Agency on next steps following the findings of the compliance pilot run by the department and the Food Standards Agency during the 2022/23 academic year.

As with all aspects of the school food standards review, the department will keep our approaches to compliance under consideration.​
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Ben Obese-Jecty:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools that initially applied for the breakfast clubs pilot scheme subsequently withdrew from that scheme. \p Stephen Morgan: The department had over 3,000 schools apply to be part of the early adopter scheme. As expected there was some movement in the schools taking part as we finalised the list of 750 before the launch of the scheme in April, but such change was minimal.

From the start of this term, the department is funding free breakfast clubs in 750 early adopter schools across England. The list of schools taking part in the breakfast clubs early adopter scheme can be found here: www.gov.uk/government/publications/breakfast-clubs-early-adopters-schools-in-the-scheme.
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Sir John Hayes:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential contribution of school food procurement to the resilience of the (a) fruit and (b) vegetable supply chain. \p Stephen Morgan: The new national procurement policy statement sets out requirements for government contracts, favouring products certified to high environmental standards that we think British producers operating to high standards are well-placed to meet.

We are engaging with stakeholders on revising the school food standards to ensure the guidance supports our work to create the healthiest generation of children in history. The current standards state one or more portions of vegetables as an accompaniment and one or more portions of fruit must be provided every day, as well as at least three different fruits and three different vegetables each week. As with all aspects of the school food standards review, we will consider our approach to fruit and vegetable provision.
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Ben Obese-Jecty:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many of the 3,000 (a) new and (b) expanded school-based nurseries will be in Huntingdon constituency. \p Stephen Morgan: No schools in the Huntingdon constituency were awarded school-based nurseries capital funding in the first phase.

In the Spending Review 2025, we announced almost £370 million of further funding to create tens of thousands of places in new and expanded school-based nurseries to help ensure more children can access the high-quality early education they deserve and get the best start in life.

This is a significant investment and the department will shortly be sharing next steps, where we will encourage schools, working with their local authority, to consider the opportunity to get involved in the programme.
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Jim Dickson:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department plans to update the School Food Standards. \p Stephen Morgan: The department announced a review of the School Food Standards on Thursday 5 June.
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Edward Morello:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance her Department has issued to schools on managing incidents in which children have (a) filmed and (b) disseminated footage of other children being harmed by their peers. \p Stephen Morgan: All pupils and staff should feel safe and protected at school, and nobody should face violence or abuse.

Schools should prohibit the use of mobile phones and other smart technology with similar functionality throughout the school day, including during lessons, the time between lessons, breaktimes and lunchtime, as set out in the 2024 ‘Mobile phones in schools’ guidance. Evidence from the Children’s Commissioner published in April 2025, shows over 90% of schools are restricting the use of phones during the school day. The department expects all schools to take steps in line with this guidance to ensure mobile phones do not disrupt pupils’ learning.

Schools should make clear to pupils that good behaviour does not end at the school gates and that, even though the online space differs in many ways, the same standards of behaviour are expected online as offline, and that everyone should be treated with kindness and respect.

In cases where pupils do misbehave outside school premises, including online bullying and abuse, schools can apply sanctions to the appropriate pupils. The school behaviour policy should set out how the school will respond to any non-criminal misbehaviour off the school premises or online.

All schools and colleges are also under a legal duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children and must have regard to ‘Keeping children safe in education’ which is the department’s statutory safeguarding guidance. Any criminal behaviour should be appropriately escalated and reported to police.
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Steve Darling:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance her Department provides to schools on supporting (a) autistic girls (b) girls masking symptoms of autism in educational settings. \p Catherine McKinnell: The department wants all children and young people to be able to receive the right support to succeed in their education and we recognise that children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) often require access to additional support.

The department also provides continuing professional development to the school and further education workforce through the Universal SEND Services programme, led by the National Association for Special Educational Needs (NASEN). From April 2025, NASEN are developing a new autism specific online training offer to support the workforce’s understanding of autism, which will include ‘train the trainer' packages and webinars to support teachers and leaders to deliver autism training in their settings.

The department has also invested in the Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools (PINS) programme, which is a national programme backed by £22 million of investment.

PINS deploys specialists from both health and education workforces to build teacher and staff capacity to identify and better meet the needs of neurodivergent children including pupils with autism.
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Perran Moon:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress her Department has made on developing a Behavioural Delivery Plan. \p Stephen Morgan: Children and staff should be able to learn and work in safe, calm environments and good behaviour is essential to ensuring all pupils can benefit from a high-quality education.

To support schools the department has announced up to 90 new Attendance and Behaviour Hubs. These Hubs will be led by schools with excellent attendance and behaviour practice who will work closely with other schools to help improve their approach and drive-up standards of behaviour across our classrooms.

Around 500 schools every year will benefit from intensive, one to one support and a further 4,500 schools will benefit from a schedule of termly regional events including training, best practice sharing events and open days.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-06-25)

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Dan Norris:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress she has made on ensuring access to specialist mental health professionals in schools. \p Stephen Morgan: This government is committed to improving mental health support for all children and young people, including those in North East Somerset and Hanham. This is critical to high and rising standards in schools and breaking down barriers to opportunity, helping pupils to achieve and thrive in education.

The government will provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school by expanding Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs), so every child and young person has access to early support to address problems before they escalate. By April 2026, the department estimates that 60% of pupils in schools and learners in further education in England will be covered by an MHST, up from 52% in April 2025. In Bath and North East Somerset local authority, 46% of pupils/learners and 47% of schools/colleges are already covered by an MHST, compared to 52% and 41% nationally, respectively.

The government will also recruit 8,500 mental health staff to treat children and adults, and open new Young Futures Hubs with access to mental health support workers.

To support education staff, the department provides a range of guidance and practical resources on promoting and supporting pupils’ mental health and wellbeing, such as a resource hub for mental health leads and a toolkit to help schools choose evidence-based early support for pupils.

School funding is increasing by £3.7 billion in 2025/26, taking total core school funding to £65.3 billion compared to £61.6 billion in 2024/25.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-06-25)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-06-25 conversation_187

Ben Obese-Jecty:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress she has made on providing 3,000 (a) new and (b) expanded school-based nurseries. \p Stephen Morgan: In April 2025, the government announced the approval of 300 new school-based nurseries in the first round of funding. This initiative will create up to 6,000 new nursery places.

The department is now working closely with the sector to design the next phase of the programme, to roll out more new and expanded school-based nurseries.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-06-25)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-06-25 conversation_188

Andrew Rosindell:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she has taken with relevant authorities to improve safeguarding policies in state primary schools. \p Stephen Morgan: Schools and colleges have a critical role to play in protecting children and keeping them safe. We published statutory safeguarding guidance ‘Keeping children safe in education’ (KCSIE) which all schools and colleges must have regard to when carrying out their duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

Education’s involvement is fundamental at all levels of safeguarding arrangements. The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will introduce a measure to place a duty on safeguarding partners to automatically include and strengthen the role of education and childcare settings in multi-agency safeguarding arrangements.

This legislation ensures the full representation of education and childcare in operational safeguarding boards and systems, as well as at the strategic decision-making levels of safeguarding arrangements. It will also mean that all education and childcare settings must work together with safeguarding partners and ensure those arrangements are fully understood and applied in their organisations.
wrans/answers2025-06-25 conversation_189
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-06-25)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-06-25 conversation_189

Jo Platt:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to monitor private supply teacher agencies. \p Catherine McKinnell: Supply teachers make an important contribution to the smooth running of schools across the country by filling posts on a temporary basis and covering teacher absences.

Schools and local authorities are currently responsible for the recruitment of their supply teachers. There are various approaches to providing supply teachers, such as using private supply teacher agencies.

The department, in conjunction with the Crown Commercial Service, has established the agency supply deal, which supports schools to obtain value for money when hiring agency supply teachers and other temporary school staff. Further information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/deal-for-schools-hiring-supply-teachers-and-agency-workers.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-06-25)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-06-25 conversation_190

Ben Obese-Jecty:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what criteria her Department will use to determine the location of the 3,000 (a) new and (b) expanded school-based nurseries. \p Stephen Morgan: Phase one of the School-Based Nurseries Capital Grant 2024/25 was open to all state-funded primary-phase schools across England.

The criteria used to determine the location of the new and expanded school-based nurseries included local demand for nursery places, availability of surplus space, delivery of high-quality early education and support for the most disadvantaged children, including those with special education needs and disabilities (SEND).

The department will learn from this initial phase and continue collaborating closely with the sector to aid our planning of future phases.​
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-06-25)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-06-25 conversation_191

Christine Jardine:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Supreme Court judgment in For Women Scotland Ltd (Appellant) v The Scottish Ministers (Respondent) [2025] UKSC 16 on transgender young people at school. \p Catherine McKinnell: Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.

The government has set out its expectation that organisations follow the clarity the ruling provides. The Equality and Human Rights Commission has already committed to supporting organisations with its updated statutory Code of Practice. The department will engage them as necessary as they progress this work.

For children in schools in England, the department is currently reviewing the draft statutory relationships, sex and health education guidance and the draft non statutory guidance on gender questioning children, ensuring that children’s wellbeing is at the heart of both. We are analysing consultation responses, talking to stakeholders and considering the evidence, including the Cass Review, before deciding next steps.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-06-25)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-06-25 conversation_192

Shaun Davies:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will publish any centrally-owned workforce planning documents for early years provision. \p Stephen Morgan: The early years workforce is at the heart of this government’s mission to give every child the best start in life and deliver our Plan for Change. We will continue to drive forward our progress on our 2028 Plan for Change target for a record proportion (75%) of children starting school ready to learn. To achieve this, we will work in partnership with the sector, reforming training and supporting the workforce to drive up standards and offer sustained professional development. We will test new approaches to achieve the common goal of giving every child the best start in life.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-06-25)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-06-25 conversation_193

Alex Mayer:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve GCSE attainment among disadvantaged pupils in the East of England. \p Catherine McKinnell: All children and young people should have every opportunity to succeed, no matter who they are or where they are from. Disadvantaged pupils are more likely to face barriers that hold them back, which is why the Opportunity Mission will break the unfair link between background and success.

High and rising standards are the key to strengthening outcomes for every child and young person no matter their background, reducing gaps and helping them to achieve and thrive.

The department will deliver this through excellent teaching and leaders, a high-quality curriculum, strong accountability with faster school improvement and an inclusive system which removes the barriers to learning.

As one of our first steps for change, the department is committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 expert teachers across secondary and special schools and our colleges over the course of this parliament. We have made strong initial progress to deliver this key pledge, and our investment is starting to deliver. The workforce has grown by 2,346 FTE between 2023/24 and 2024/25 in secondary and special schools, which are the schools where they are needed most.

We have also launched a Curriculum and Assessment Review that is looking closely at the key challenges to attainment, particularly for those who are socioeconomically disadvantaged.

To drive standards in reading and writing, £27.7 million has been committed in the 2025/26 financial year, including new training and resources for secondary school staff to support reading in key stage 3, with a specific focus on readers who are at risk of falling behind.

The department funds a national network of Maths Hubs, including 5 covering the East of England, which aims to raise the standard of maths teaching from reception to age 18, preventing and reducing attainment gaps.

Alongside this, pupil premium funding of over £3 billion is being provided in the 2025/26 financial year to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged pupils.