Department for Education

This government recognises the impact that cost-of-living pressures are having on students. This is why we are reintroducing means-tested maintenance grants from the 2028/29 academic year, providing students with up to £1,000 extra support each year, regardless of their location. We will also increase maintenance loans by 2.71% in 2026/27, bringing maximum amounts to £14,135 for students living away from home and studying in London, £10,830 for students living away from home and studying outside London and £9,118 for students living at home.

We are developing options to address regional disparities in entering higher education for disadvantaged students through a new Access and Participation Task and Finish Group, chaired by Professor Kathryn Mitchell, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of the University of Derby. We are also working with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to encourage universities to collaborate with local authorities on strategic approaches to meeting student housing needs.

Plan 2 interest rates vary with income when the borrower has left study and is in repayment. The lower interest threshold, below which borrowers are charged an interest rate of RPI+0%, is currently £28,470. Interest then increases on a sliding scale to RPI+3% for borrowers earning over the higher interest threshold (currently £51,245). This ensures that, post-study, only borrowers earning higher incomes are charged RPI+3 interest.

Student loan repayments are made based on a borrower’s monthly or weekly earnings, not the interest rate or amount borrowed. Outstanding debt, including interest accrued, is cancelled at the end of the loan term with no detriment to the borrower.

Interest rates on student loans have been consistently linked to a widely recognised and adopted measure of inflation. Interest rates are set in legislation in reference to the Retail Price Index (RPI) from the previous March and are applied annually on 1 September until 31 August.

The Office for National Statistics has undertaken a substantial programme of work over the past two years to enhance how inflation is measured and this will be carried over into student loans. The Office for Budget Responsibility has confirmed that from 2030 at the earliest, movements in RPI will be aligned with the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Further details are available at:

https://obr.uk/box/the-long-run-difference-between-rpi-and-cpi-inflation/.

We have announced an ambitious reform programme to urgently address the sharp decline in foster carers and modernise fostering.

We are investing £88 million over the next two financial years to transform the foster care system. That will include direct action to recruit and retain a wide range of foster carers, including weekend and short-break foster carers.

This investment includes an innovation programme supported by £12.4 million to scale and spread new and existing models of care, including different models of foster care that push at the boundaries of how we achieve better results for children. This programme can also include initiatives that make greater use of supported lodgings to enable older children, where appropriate, to live more independently.

Our policy paper also sets out plans to ensure that carers can rely on their own trusted networks, and to tackle unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles that carers often face when attempting to do this. The policy paper is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/renewing-fostering-homes-for-10000-more-children.

This government is committed to training the staff we need to get patients seen on time, including more medical and clinical professionals and will work closely with partners in education to do so and ensure these professions remain attractive career choices.

We now have a complete apprentice pathway for nursing, from entry level to postgraduate advanced clinical practice. A person can join the NHS as an entry level healthcare assistant apprentice with a view to eventually qualifying as a registered nurse.

For those who do take out a student loan to support their studies, unlike commercial loans, student loan repayments are linked to income, not to the amount borrowed or interest applied. And at the end of the repayment term any outstanding loan debt, including interest accrued, will be cancelled with no detriment to the borrower, and debt is never passed on to family members or descendants.

Students studying on eligible courses at English universities qualify for additional support through the NHS Learning Support Fund or NHS Bursary.

It is important that student loans are subject to interest, to ensure that those who can afford to do so contribute to the full cost of their degree. Lower earning borrowers, and those who do not go on to repay their loan in full, are protected. The regulations provide that at the end of the loan term any outstanding loan debt, including interest accrued, will be cancelled at no detriment to the borrower. Debt is never passed on to family members or descendants.

Borrowers on intermittent incomes are also protected as repayments are based on earnings, not on the rate of interest or the size of debt. This means if their income drops, so do their repayments. Interest rates do not have an immediate cash impact on the cost of living for borrowers, as interest rates do not affect monthly student loan repayments.

I refer the hon. Member for West Suffolk to the answer of 13 February 2026 to Question 103940.

As of 30 April 2025, there were approximately 19,000 (to the nearest 1000) Plan 2 student loan borrowers with a positive loan balance registered with the Student Loans Company (SLC) to postcodes which fall wholly or partly within the local authority area of Stroud District Local Authority.

This will include borrowers who were resident in Stroud, including at parental addresses, when they applied for the loan and have not informed the SLC of a subsequent change of address.

The department produced the following analysis regarding the impact of maintaining the repayment and interest thresholds for Plan 2 student loans on the lifetime repayments made by borrowers:

The department will release an equalities impact assessment, including the impact on lifetime repayments, alongside other borrower impacts for the Plan 2 repayment threshold and interest threshold freeze announced at the Autumn Budget. Published results may differ from those provided due to model and data updates.

The rate of repayment for undergraduate student loans remains at 9% on all income above the relevant threshold. Other factors, including any reliefs, pension contributions, or receipt of certain means-tested welfare benefits could adjust an individual’s effective tax rate.

Further education (FE) colleges are responsible for setting and negotiating staff pay and terms and conditions within colleges.

The government recognises that colleges are facing recruitment challenges in construction and engineering. That is why our targeted retention incentive scheme gives eligible early career college teachers in priority subjects, including building and construction and engineering, up to £6,000 after tax annually. In the 2024/25 academic year, almost 6,000 teachers received payments.

In addition, we have announced that areas with Local Skills Improvement Plans will benefit from £20 million to form partnerships between FE providers and construction employers. This will help to build links between colleges and industry and boost the number of teachers with construction experience in FE.

Across the spending review period, we will provide £1.2 billion of additional investment per year in skills by 2028/2029. This significant investment will ensure there is increased funding to colleges and other 16 to19 providers to enable the recruitment and retention of expert teachers in high value subject areas, and interventions to retain top teaching talent.

As the independent regulator of higher education, the Office for Students makes independent decisions about regulatory interventions.

Applying interest to the loans ensures that those who benefit financially from higher education (HE) contribute towards the cost of that HE. To ensure the real value of the loans over the repayment term, interest is linked to inflation. Interest increases the face value of the student loan book, but the impact on the fair value depends on complex assumptions about lifetime repayments.

In cashflow terms, neither outlay nor repayments are affected by a higher interest rate in the short term. Only when borrowers approach the end of their repayments would there be an increase in repayments through additional interest leading to extended repayment periods up to the maximum of 30 years for Plan 2 and 40 years for Plan 5 loans.

The latest higher education (HE) Statistics Agency data shows that 71.4% of UK-domiciled graduates from 2022/23 in employment were in high-skilled roles 15 months after graduation.

Latest ‘Graduate Labour Market Statistics’ data show that in 2024, 79.0% of working age postgraduates and 67.9% of graduates were in high-skilled employment, an increase compared to 2023.

Further, research suggests that the majority of graduates are expected to earn a positive financial return from HE over their lifetime. Whilst employment rates for graduates remain higher than for non-graduates, we recognise that those leaving HE face challenges and are taking steps to ensure graduates are ready for work.

The department does not hold an estimate of the proportion of total Plan 2 outlay since 2012 that will be written off. We forecast subsidy portions for outlay for current and future financial years.

We estimate a resource accounting and budget (RAB) charge of 34% for Plan 2 loan outlay issued in the 2025/26 academic year to English domiciled borrowers. The RAB charge represents the subsidy portion of loan outlay as recorded in departmental accounts.

Outstanding debt, including interest accrued, is cancelled at the end of the loan term with no detriment to the borrower, and debt is never passed on to family members or descendants. There are no commercial loans that offer this level of borrower protection. This cancellation/subsidy is a conscious investment in our young people and the skills capacity, people and economy of this country.

Under the current Plan 5 student loan system, the repayment threshold is £25,000. Nationally, graduates across all subject areas have median earnings above this, five years after graduation, with the exception of Performing Arts graduates whose median earnings are £24,500.

More detail on courses at specific providers can be found in the department‘s published LEO provider level dashboard, which contains earnings outcomes at five years after graduation for each ‘provider x subject’ combination. This is available here: https://department-for-education.shinyapps.io/leo-provider-dashboard/

It should be noted that many of these combinations have outcomes suppressed due to low sample sizes, meaning it is not possible to produce a robust count of the total number of such courses.

Improving coordination between universities and NHS mental health services is a key priority. The Higher Education Mental Health Implementation Taskforce recently published Improving Student Mental Health through Higher Education-NHS Partnerships, which sets out evidenced models of effective collaboration and provides case studies showing how stronger partnerships working together can transform outcomes for students while delivering efficiencies for local health services. The government encourages any university not already involved in such a partnership to draw on these models and to work with their local integrated care board to identify an approach that meets local needs.

The Office for Students (OfS) is the independent regulator, and any decision to introduce a new regulatory condition would be for the OfS to determine. The Higher Education Mental Health Implementation Taskforce and department are working closely with the OfS as part of our work to improve consistency and raise standards in how providers support student mental health. This includes considering regulatory options alongside other levers such as governance, assurance and strengthened good practice frameworks. We will set out our position following advice from the taskforce, which is helping identify what a clear, strong and proportionate framework should look like.

The department works closely with a range of charities, who support parents, carers, children and young people with education, health and care (EHC) plans currently in place.

We have extended our current participation and family support contract to guarantee continuity of vital support services for parent carers and children and young people throughout 2026/27. These services include a national helpline which gives independent advice, support and resources to parent carers, and also the training of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Information Advice and Support Services (SENDIASS) staff to ensure they are up to date with legal advice and information, and that they can support families locally. SENDIASS offer independent impartial information, advice and support on the full range of education, health and social care for parents, carers, children and young people with SEND. They also provide advocacy support for individual children, young people, and parents, which includes representation during a tribunal hearing if the parent or young person is unable to do so.

These services are designed to help families understand the impact of changes to the SEND system particularly in relation to EHC plans.

The current national curriculum includes these topics, and there is a food preparation and nutrition GCSE, and science and geography are available at GCSE and A level.

In response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review, the department will enhance the identity of food education by clearly distinguishing cooking and nutrition, which will be renamed food and nutrition, as a distinct subject within design and technology.

The department will also enhance the focus on climate education and sustainability that already exists in subjects such as geography, science, and citizenship. We will also include sustainability within design and technology.

The national curriculum will be taught in academies when it is implemented.

At post-16, the department is continuing to support adults to retrain and reskill in line with the needs of the green economy. We have a range of qualifications for older learners that provide training in green skills including apprenticeships, T levels, Skills Bootcamps and higher technical qualifications.

Universities are expected to carry out serious incident reviews after a suspected student suicide, following sector‑developed postvention guidance produced by Universities UK, PAPYRUS and Samaritans, which sets clear expectations for reviewing incidents and identifying lessons for improvement.

To support sector‑wide learning, the department last year published the first National Review of Higher Education Student Suicide Deaths, drawing on more than 160 such reviews to provide a shared evidence base and recommendations for improvement across the sector. These recommendations are now being taken forward through the Higher Education Mental Health Implementation Taskforce, which is working with providers to embed consistent practice and strengthen postvention approaches.

The Taskforce is also exploring how to improve data and evidence collection so that learning from future cases can be captured more consistently and used to drive further continuous improvement across the sector.

Adoption England already has a well-established National Youth Forum. Young people who contributed to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Adoption and Permanence’s Adoptee Voices report can join the Forum to share their views and influence the government and others involved in developing policy. The government particularly wants to hear from adoptees and those with lived experience of adoption. That is why we are seeking their views specifically through our consultation on the future of adoption support. The consultation document can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/adoption-support-that-works-for-all.

The government announced on 26 November 2025, as part of Autumn Budget 2025, the repayment threshold to apply to English Plan 2 student loans from April 2027 to April 2030.

The Student Loans Company (SLC) publish confirmation of the repayment threshold to apply in the upcoming financial year annually on GOV.UK. Further, SLC have extensive guidance on the operation of the student loan repayments system available on GOV.UK, including confirmation of the current repayment threshold.

The repayment term for Plan 2 loans is 30 years. They were designed and implemented by previous governments. Students in England starting degrees under this government have different arrangements.

The student loan system is designed to protect borrowers, and repayments are determined by income, not the amount borrowed or the rate of interest. Borrowers only start repaying their student loan once earnings exceed the threshold, after which they pay 9% of income above that level. To protect lower earners, if a borrower’s earnings drop, so do their repayments, and if earnings fall below the repayment threshold, then they repay nothing at all.

After 30 years any outstanding loan and interest is cancelled at the end of the loan term, and debt is never passed on to family members or descendants. A borrower on Plan 2 entering repayment at age 21 would have any outstanding loan amount written off at age 51. No commercial loan offers this level of protection.

There is currently no national tracking of looked-after children or previously looked-after children on health waiting lists and the department has not assessed the merits of such a measure.

All local authorities and healthcare partners have a responsibility to promote the health and wellbeing of all looked-after children. This is outlined within the ‘Promoting the health and wellbeing of looked-after children’ statutory guidance.

The local authority must ensure that every child whom it looks after has an up to date individual health plan. Health plans are based on individual health assessments carried out by a registered medical practitioner. They describe how identified needs will be addressed to improve health outcomes. Health assessments should take place at least every six months for children under five and at least every 12 months for children five and over.

As reflected in the British Dyslexia Association’s report, the effective early identification and intervention is critical in improving the outcomes of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. In an inclusive education system, settings should be confident in accurately assessing children and young people’s learning and development and meeting any educational needs with evidence-based responses.

There are a number of national assessments already in place to measure progress and help teachers identify where pupils may require additional support with literacy, such as the phonics screening check, and end of key stage 2 assessments. A range of measures have also been introduced that aim to support the effective teaching of reading, including for those with special education needs and disabilities or those at risk of falling behind. This includes the English Hubs programme, the reading and writing frameworks, the Reading Ambition for All programme and the published list of department-validated high-quality phonics programmes for schools.

To further support settings to identify need early, we are strengthening the evidence base of what works to improve early identification in mainstream settings, including through collaboration with UK Research Innovation.

As reflected in the British Dyslexia Association’s report, the effective early identification and intervention is critical in improving the outcomes of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. In an inclusive education system, settings should be confident in accurately assessing children and young people’s learning and development and meeting any educational needs with evidence-based responses.

There are a number of national assessments already in place to measure progress and help teachers identify where pupils may require additional support with literacy, such as the phonics screening check, and end of key stage 2 assessments. A range of measures have also been introduced that aim to support the effective teaching of reading, including for those with special education needs and disabilities or those at risk of falling behind. This includes the English Hubs programme, the reading and writing frameworks, the Reading Ambition for All programme and the published list of department-validated high-quality phonics programmes for schools.

To further support settings to identify need early, we are strengthening the evidence base of what works to improve early identification in mainstream settings, including through collaboration with UK Research Innovation.

The department does not collect or publish teacher leaving rates broken down by teacher pay band. We publish the number and rate of qualified teachers who join and leave the state-funded sector each year in the ‘School workforce in England’ publication. The latest data was published 5 June 2025 and is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england. In 2023/24, 40,813 fulltime equivalent (FTE) qualified teachers left the state-funded sector, compared with 42,554 in 2022/23. This equates to 9% of all qualified teachers, one of lowest leaver rates outside the pandemic years.

The department is not the employer of school staff and does not collect data on the use of settlement agreements or confidentiality clauses by academy trusts or local authorities.

Settlement agreements should be entirely voluntary for all involved and schools, as employers, are required to comply with all aspects of employment law. Additionally, academy trusts must also comply with the Academies Financial Handbook, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/academies-financial-handbook.

Where a settlement agreement includes a confidentiality clause, existing law means such clauses cannot be used to prevent someone from making a protected disclosure such as whistleblowing. Further information about whistle blowing for employees is provided here: https://www.gov.uk/whistleblowing.

This government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity and tackling child poverty. We want to make sure that every family that needs support can access it.

We are introducing a new eligibility threshold for free school meals so that all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit will be eligible for free school meals from September 2026. This will make it easier for parents to know whether their children are entitled to receive free meals. This new entitlement will mean over 500,000 of the most disadvantaged children will begin to access free meals, pulling 100,000 children out of poverty and putting £500 back in families’ pockets.

We are also rolling out improvements to the Eligibility Checking System, the digital portal currently used by local authorities to verify if a child meets the eligibility criteria for free lunches. Giving parents and schools access will accelerate eligibility checks, making it easier to check if children are eligible for free meals.

The UK offers one of the best education systems in the world, especially teaching and research in high growth sectors of the future. We welcome high-quality students from across the world, including from the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The Office for Students is the independent regulator of higher education in England. As such, it monitors the financial health of providers to ensure it has an up to date understanding of the sustainability of the sector.

The UK and UAE have a deep and long-standing bilateral relationship, and we will continue to discuss this matter with their government.

As part of our Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy, we are helping all education settings to develop and implement climate action plans through a package of online and in person support. All climate action plans include taking action to become more climate resilient.

The department’s specification for the design and construction of new school buildings includes the requirement that they are built for a 2 degree rise in average global temperatures, and future-proofed for a 4 degree rise.

Engagement with the support has been positive. The department does not currently collect data relating to the number of schools with plans.

As part of our Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy, we are helping all education settings to develop and implement climate action plans through a package of online and in person support. All climate action plans include taking action to become more climate resilient.

The department’s specification for the design and construction of new school buildings includes the requirement that they are built for a 2 degree rise in average global temperatures, and future-proofed for a 4 degree rise.

Engagement with the support has been positive. The department does not currently collect data relating to the number of schools with plans.

The department publishes attendance data, including reasons for absence such as setting closures.

Decisions on closures rest with individual settings and responsible bodies, based on their own risk assessments.

Closures should be a last resort, with the priority to keep settings open where safe. Settings are expected to provide remote education and the department’s emergency planning guidance explains how schools should deliver remote education. The guidance can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/emergency-planning-and-response-for-education-childcare-and-childrens-social-care-settings/emergency-planning-and-response-for-education-childcare-and-childrens-social-care-settings#exam-and-assessment-disruption.

Drawing on lessons from Covid, the department has strengthened monitoring of disruptions to provide faster support and reduce lost learning time.

9,986 out of 24,149 (41%) schools in England were supported by an NHS-funded Mental Health Support Team (MHST) in March 2025. This data on the coverage of MHSTs in England in 2024/25 can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/transforming-children-and-young-peoples-mental-health-provision. This has been available since 16 May 2025 at national, regional and local authority level and since 10 July 2025 at constituency level. Around six in ten pupils nationally are expected to have access to an MHST by March 2026, and we will accelerate the roll out to reach full national coverage by 2029.

Data on MHST coverage is collected annually, as part of the government's commitment to expand MHSTs to every school, so every child and young person has access to early support to address problems before they escalate.

Mainstream free school projects were evaluated in line with consistent criteria focusing on assessing the need for places and value for money. This included considering whether projects would provide a distinctive local offer and whether they would risk negatively impacting other local schools or colleges.

As part of one of the largest city regions outside London, Oldham benefits from a large pool of potential learners. Well developed transport links will allow the school to attract learners from across a broad geographical area.

Conditions attached to the school will ensure both Eton and Star work with local schools and colleges to ensure the new school sits coherently within the existing local offer, with a focus on improving GCSE outcomes and progression rates into post-16 provision across the local area, as well as into top universities.

The responsibility for undertaking a Section 10 consultation prior to the school opening sits with the Academy Trust. The Secretary of State will take the findings into account when considering whether to enter into a funding agreement.

Mainstream free school projects were evaluated in line with consistent criteria focusing on assessing the need for places and value for money. This included considering whether projects would provide a distinctive local offer and whether they would risk negatively impacting other local schools or colleges.

As part of one of the largest city regions outside London, Oldham benefits from a large pool of potential learners. Well developed transport links will allow the school to attract learners from across a broad geographical area.

Conditions attached to the school will ensure both Eton and Star work with local schools and colleges to ensure the new school sits coherently within the existing local offer, with a focus on improving GCSE outcomes and progression rates into post-16 provision across the local area, as well as into top universities.

The responsibility for undertaking a Section 10 consultation prior to the school opening sits with the Academy Trust. The Secretary of State will take the findings into account when considering whether to enter into a funding agreement.

The Education Content Store programme is currently preparing for public beta phase. This phase will provide access, on a test basis, to publicly available materials which have been optimised for use with artificial intelligence. This will not include pupil work.

The Education Content Store contains no information about pupils. A limited amount of anonymised pupil work was included in the pilot, with written permission from parents.

During the pilot phase, a small number of British educational technology companies had access to the content store. Some of these were selected through the Contracts for Innovation competition with UK Research and Innovation, and others were participating in non-commercial user testing activities. The pilot phase has now ended, and only those working on the development of the store, or related programmes across government, including the National Data Library, currently have access.

We will publish a full report on the content store pilot phase before the end of the academic year.

The revised relationships, sex and health education statutory guidance was published on 15 July 2025.

The department will invest £3 million in a teacher training fund over the next two years to ensure that the new curriculum has the greatest impact and £5 million to pilot healthy relationships training delivered by external providers.

Following the Curriculum and Assessment Review, published on 5 November 2025, we will strengthen financial literacy content and sequencing in citizenship and maths. More details on the conclusions and recommendations from the Curriculum and Assessment Review are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/curriculum-and-assessment-review-final-report.

To ensure all pupils benefit from the refreshed national curriculum, we will ensure that core training throughout a teacher’s career has a strong focus on high-quality adaptive teaching, formative assessment and high expectations for all. This includes initial teacher training and the early career framework.

The government commissioned Oak National Academy to develop resources for schools in line with new curriculum requirements.

Level 2 English and mathematics skills are essential for progression in work and further study, and providers are required to continue teaching English and/or mathematics to students aged 16 to 19 without these skills. Learners aged 16 to 18 at the start of their apprenticeship are required to achieve English and/or maths qualifications as an exit requirement.

The department does not set entry requirements for further education (FE) courses and guidance is clear that decisions to enter students into English and mathematics exams should be based on readiness to improve their grade.

The Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper outlined further support for providers to improve outcomes for all students, on study programmes. We have introduced teaching hours requirements and will also introduce new Level 1 preparation for GCSE qualifications. We are working with the FE Commissioner to share effective practice. Proposed reforms to level 2 and 3 vocational and technical pathways will also be designed to ensure there is sufficient time to continue studying English and mathematics.

Level 2 English and mathematics skills are essential for progression in work and further study, and providers are required to continue teaching English and/or mathematics to students aged 16 to 19 without these skills. Learners aged 16 to 18 at the start of their apprenticeship are required to achieve English and/or maths qualifications as an exit requirement.

The department does not set entry requirements for further education (FE) courses and guidance is clear that decisions to enter students into English and mathematics exams should be based on readiness to improve their grade.

The Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper outlined further support for providers to improve outcomes for all students, on study programmes. We have introduced teaching hours requirements and will also introduce new Level 1 preparation for GCSE qualifications. We are working with the FE Commissioner to share effective practice. Proposed reforms to level 2 and 3 vocational and technical pathways will also be designed to ensure there is sufficient time to continue studying English and mathematics.

The oldest Plan 2 loans will become eligible for cancellation in 2046. For the England-domiciled 2012/13 cohort, the first to receive Plan 2 loans, we forecast a total of £17,036 million in loan balances (including interest) will be cancelled at the end of their 30-year repayment periods.

These cancellations are accounted for at the point of loan outlay. The future cancelled debt is reflected in both the national accounts and the department’s accounts in the year the loan is issued and is then updated annually. It will not result in further losses when the loans reach the end of their 30-year write-off period.

The treatment of student loans in the national accounts is in line the methodology published by the Office for National Statistics and can be found here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/governmentpublicsectorandtaxes/publicsectorfinance/methodologies/studentloansinthepublicsectorfinancesamethodologicalguide.

The updated relationships, sex and health education guidance ensures that, from September 2026, schools will address gender‑based online harms including from pornography, deepfakes, sextortion and misogynistic content. It places new emphasis on challenging misogyny and supporting pupils to recognise and report harmful behaviours and to understand the impact of harmful online influencers.

In December 2025, the government published a new strategy to tackle violence against women and girls. We want to protect young people and drive forward education on healthy relationships. We will invest £11 million to pilot the best interventions in schools over the next three years.

‘Keeping children safe in education’, the statutory safeguarding guidance which schools must have regard to, has been strengthened significantly in recent years to reflect evolving online risks. Online safety is embedded throughout, making clear the importance of ensuring a whole school approach to keeping children safe both online and offline.

The department recognises the importance of speaking and listening skills, which has been very clearly set out by the recent Curriculum and Assessment Review. As part of our English curriculum reform, we will make sure that communication skills inherent in curriculum subjects are more clearly expressed through revised programmes of study. We will revise the English and drama programmes of study to add more clarity and specificity in speaking and listening, as well as ensuring that the reformed English language GCSE focusses on the features and use of language as a form of communication. We will also create a new oracy framework to sit alongside the national curriculum that will support primary teachers to help their pupils become confident, fluent speakers, as well as a new secondary oracy, reading and writing framework, which will enable secondary teachers to connect and embed all three of those vital skills in each of their subjects as part of a whole school strategy.

We are also considering whether and how the sequencing of grammatical content in the curriculum should be changed, to enable pupils to master concepts and use them in context.

It is important to educate people about causes and symptoms of cancer, and we are supportive of efforts to do this at an early age.

Revised relationships, sex and health education statutory guidance was published on 15 July 2025. Cancer awareness and other specific cancer-related content is included. At secondary school, as part of their studies on health protection and prevention and understanding the healthcare system, pupils will be taught the importance of taking responsibility for their own health, including regular self-examination and screening.

Schools may teach about cancer awareness in other areas of the current national curriculum. The secondary science curriculum ensures pupils are taught about non-communicable diseases, such as cancer, and the impact of lifestyle factors. In design and food technology, schools should highlight the importance of nutrition. We are developing a new national curriculum with teachers, curriculum experts, pupils and parents, which schools will start teaching from September 2028.

The department has access to records of hotel accommodation used by employees; however, this information is not collected or categorised by hotel star rating. In 2024/25, employees booked 8,367 hotel nights, equivalent to an average 1.06 nights per employee.

The department’s travel and expenses policy ensures value for money by setting clear limits for hotel costs: £160 per night in London and £110 per night elsewhere. Employees are expected to book within these caps through approved channels.

Where accommodation cannot reasonably be secured within these limits, any higher‑cost booking must receive prior approval from a Senior Civil Servant (Deputy Director or above). Such approval is granted only where there is a clearly evidenced business or critical operational need.